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ADDRESSES, 


Spei^ches  and  Miscellanies 


ON 


Various    Occasions,    from    1854    to    1879. 


A 


H^'^ 


JAMES    O.    PUTNAM. 


P.  U  F  F  A  L  O  : 
PETER    PAUL    &    BROTHER. 

271    Main    Street. 
1880. 


Entered  according  to  act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1880, 

Bv   PETER    PAUL   &   BROTHER, 

In  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington,  D.  C. 


The  Courier  Company, 

Blectrotypers,  Printers  and  Binders, 
Buffalo,  X.  Y. 


THIS    VOLUME 

IS 

JDctricntcIr    to    tijc   IWcmori?    of   mj?    ffat\)tv, 

HARVEY  PUTNAM. 

His    Name    stood    for    Justice    and    Honor 

His    Life    illustrated    every 

Private    Virtue. 


PREFACE. 


A  WORD  of  explanation  may  properly  accompany  this  vol- 
ume. In  former  years,  when  certain  questions  that  involved 
the  most  sacred  rights  of  citizens,  in  connection  both  with 
the  Church  and  the  State,  were  agitating  the  public  mind,  it 
fell  to  me  to  take  some  part  in  their  discussion.  Believing 
the  principles  involved  in  some  of  those  questions  to  be  ot 
permanent  interest,  I  have  thought  such  a  record  of  the  con- 
troversies due  to  the  subjects  themselves.  Then,  again,  to 
me  has  been  assigned  the  office  of  interpreter  of  the  spirit 
of  some  of  our  local  institutions  and  of  the  lives  of  some  of 
our  representative  characters  —  institutions  and  characters 
which  are,  and  must  continue  to  be,  no  small  part  of  the 
pride  and  honor  of  Buffalo. 

If  that  duty  was  in  any  degree  properly  discharged,  the 
collection  of  these  studies  may  have  some  value  as  a  part 
of   local   history. 

The  other  papers,  though  of  less  permanent  interest, 
naturally  find  a  j^lace  in  this  volume. 

James  O.  Putnam. 
Buffalo,  January  i,  iSSo. 


CONTENTS. 


Speech, 9 

Delivered  in  the  Senate  of  New  York,  January  30,  1855,  on  the 
Bill  requiring  Church  Property  to  be  Vested  in  Trustees,  under 
the  Act  relating  to  Religious  Corporations. 

Independence  I).a.y, 45 

Oration  delivered  at  Lockport,  N.  Y.,  July  4,  1S56. 

The  Federal  Judiciary, 67 

Extract  from  an  Oration  delivered  at  Warsaw,  N.  Y.,  July  4, 1S57. 

Agriculture, 7^ 

Address  delivei-ed  before  the  Erie  County  Agricultural  Society, 
September  29,  1858. 

Relations   of  Agriculture, 90 

Extract  from  an  Address  delivered  before  the  Chautauqua  County 
Agricultural  Society,  September  15,  1859. 

Buffalo  General  Hospital, 95 

Address  delivered  at  the  Dedicatory  Exercises,  June  24,  1858. 

Buffalo  State  Insane  Asylum, 109 

Oration  delivered  at  the  Laying  of  the  Corner-stone,  September  18, 
1872. 

The    Ne\v  Buffalo  Armory, 126 

Oration  delivered  at  the  Dedicatory  E.xercises,  February  24,  1868. 

Independence  Day, 139 

Oration  delivered  at  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  July  4,  1870. 

Decoration    Day, 150 

Address  delivered  at  Attica,  N.  Y.,  May  31,  1877. 

Death  of  Lincoln, 161 

Address  of  American  Citizens  in  Paris  (France),  May  4,  1865. 

Birthday  of  Washington, 165 

Oration  delivered  in  Paris  (France),  February  22,  1866. 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

The  Chinese  Embassy, i88 

Response  to  a  Sentiment,  at  a  Banquet  in  the  City  of  New  York 
given  to  Hon.  Anson  Burlingamc,  Minister  from  Ciiina,  and  his 
Associates,  June  23,  1868. 

The  BuihE  Society, 192 

Address  delivered  before  the  Buffalo  and  Erie  County  Bible 
Society,  June  19,  1870. 

Yale    College, 200 

Remarks  at  the  Reception  by  Buffalo  Graduates  of  Yale  to 
President  Porter,  December  28,  1876. 

Public  Charities, 203 

Address  delivered  before  the  Buffalo  Charity  Organization  Society, 
January  9,  1879. 

Charles  Kingsley's  Life  and  Letters, 215 

Notice  of,  from  Buffalo  Daily  Courier. 

Harriet  Martineau's  Autobiography, 221 

Notice  of,  from  Buffalo  Commercial  Advertiser. 

Harvey  Putnam, 228 

A  Memorial  Paper,  read  before  the  Buffalo  Historical  Society, 
February  18,  1868. 

John  B.  Skinner, 240 

A  Memorial  Paper,  read  before  the  Buffalo  Plistorical  Society, 
February  24,  1873. 

Millard  Fillmore, 257 

Remarks  before  the  Buffalo  Historical  Society,  on  Seconding 
Resolutions  upon  the  Occasion  of  the  Death  of  Ex-President 
Fillmore,  March  11,  1874. 

Nathan  K.  Hall, 264 

A  Memorial  Paper,  read  before  the  Buffalo  Historical  Society, 
March  30,  1874. 

John   C.  Lord,  D.  D., 281 

A  Memorial  Paper,  read  before  the  Buffalo  Historical  Society, 
April  2,  1877. 

Grosvenor  W.  Heacock,  D.  D., 307 

A  Tribute  to  his  Memory,  published  in  the  Buffalo  Commereia/ 
Advertiser,  May  7,  1877. 


CONTENTS.  IX 

Georce    R.  Babcock, 31° 

Remarks  at  a  Meeting  of  the  Bar  of  Erie  County,  September  26, 
1876. 

Dennis   Bowen. 3M 

Remarks  at  a  Meeting  of  the  Ear  of  Erie  County,  April  23,  1877. 

Kossuth  anp  Intervention, 320 

Originally  published  in  Buffalo  Commercial  Advertiser,  December 
16,  1S51. 

John  Brown's  Execution, 326 

Originally  published  in  Buffalo  Commercial  Advertiser,  December 
2,  1859. 

Brooks-Sumner  Tragedy, 331 

Speech  at  a  Meeting  of  Citizens  of  Buffalo,  called  to  consider  the 
Outrage,  held  June  2,  1856. 

The  Missouri  Compromise, 337 

Speech  delivered    in  the  Senate  of  New  York  on  the  Nebraska 
Resolutions,  February  3,  1854. 

Lecompton  (Kansas)  Constitution, 349 

Speech  at  the  American  and  Republican  Anti-Lecompton  Mass 
Meeting,  held  in  Buffalo,  Alay  27,  1858. 

Republican  Principles, 363 

A  Speech  at  a  Republican  Meeting,  held  in  the  Cooper  Institute, 
in  the  City  of  New  York,  September  13,  1S60. 

Letters  from  Spain  and  Portugal  : 

Number        I. — From  Madeira  Island, 375 

Number      II. — From  Lisbon, 3^3 

Number    III. — From  Cadiz,  39° 

Number     IV.— From  Seville,        397 

Number      V.— From  Malaga, 403 

Number     VI. — From  Granada,  407 

Number  VII. — From  Gibraltar  and  Cadiz, 421 


ADDRESSES  AND  MISCELLANIES. 


SPEECH 


Delivered  in  the  Senate  of  New  York,  January  30,  1855,  on  the 

Bn,L    REQUIRING    ChURCH     PROPERTY    TO    BE    VESTED    IN     TRUSTEES, 
UNDER   THE    ACT    RELATING   TO    RELIGIOUS    CORPORATIONS. 


Mr.  Chairman: 

As  I  originally  introduced,  and  subsequently  reported 
this  bill  from  the  select  committee,  without  stating  at 
length  their  views,  it  seems  proper  that  I  should  submit 
to  the  Senate  the  objects  at  which  it  aims,  and  the  con- 
siderations which  have  induced  my  action. 

The  bill  seeks  uniformity  in  the  tenure  of  Church  tem- 
poralities. While  my  attention  has,  as  a  legislator,  been 
called  to  the  questions  involved,  I  have  been  sensible  of 
the  importance  of  maintaining  to  all  citizens  of  every 
shade  of  religious  sentiment,  the  constitutional  guarantee 
of  the  "  free  exercise  and  enjoyment  of  religious  profes- 
sion and  worship."  While  I  believe  this  principle  is  in 
no  measure  violated  by  the  bill  proposed,  I  remember 
that  even  this  guarantee  is  made  by  the  fundamental 
law,  subject  to  the  condition  "  that  it  do  not  lead  to  prac- 
tices inconsistent  with  the  peace  or  safety  of  the  State." 
Sal2is  populi,  snprciiia  lex,  is  the  paramount  idea  of  the 
constitution.  This  bill  interferes  with  no  belief,  it  strikes 
at  no  general  and  long-established  policy  of  any  Church, 


lO  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

or  of  any  body  of  religionists.  It  simply  provides  for 
the  vesting  of  the  title  of  lands  dedicated  to  religious 
uses,  in  trustees  of  the  congregation  enjoying  the  same, 
in  accordance  with  a  law  and  policy  of  the  State  which 
are  almost  co-existent  with  its  incorporation  into  the 
Federal  Union.  It  may  lead  us  to  a  better  appreciation 
of  this  subject  if  we  refer  to  that  policy,  and  to  the 
motives  which  led  to  its  adoption. 

The  organization  of  New  York,  like  that  of  her  sister 
colonies,  into  a  free  and  independent  State,  was  the  result 
of  the  triumph  of  the  popular  principle  of  the  right  of 
man  to  self-government. 

That  organization  was  the  overthrow  -of  all  political 
power  riot  emanating  from  the  popular  will,  and  of  all 
undue  prerogative  on  the  part  of  a  priesthood.  New 
York,  as  she  shared  its  labors  and  sacrifices,  fully  sympa- 
thized with  the  spirit  of  the  Revolution,  and  has  ever 
adhered  to  the  republican  policy  in  all  matters  pertain- 
ing to  Church  or  State.  If  the  founders  of  our  State 
government  were  careful  to  secure  to  the  people  the  right 
of  governing  themselves,  and  to  throw  around  the  citizen 
the  safeguards  of  a  constitutional  liberty,  they  were  no 
less  careful  to  confine  the  clergy  within  their  legitimate 
sphere  as  spiritual  guides.  This  jealousy  of  clerical  influ- 
ence is  one  of  the  most  marked  features  of  our  first  State 
constitution.  Let  us  look  for  a  moment  at  the  rock 
from  which  we  were  hewed.  It  is  well,  at  times,  to  trace 
the  stream  back  to  its  fountain. 

The  preambles  of  sections  38  and  39,  of  our  first  State 
constitution,  which  are  declaratory  of  the  free  exercise 
of  religious  liberty,  are  as  follows : 

38.  And  whereas  we  are  required  by  the  benevolent  prin- 
ciples of  rational  liberty,  not  only  to  expel  civil  tyranny,  but 
also  to  guard  against  spiritual  oppression  and  intolerance  where- 


CHURCH   PROPERTY   BILL.  II 

with  the  bigotry  and  ambition  of  weak  and  wicVed  priests  and 
princes  have  scourged  mankind,  this  convention  doth,  etc. 
(declaration  of  free  exercise  of  religion,  here  follows). 

39.  And  whereas  the  ministers  of  the  gospel  are  by  their 
profession  dedicated  to  the  service  of  God  and  the  cure  of  souls, 
and  ought  not  to  be  diverted  from  the  great  duties  of  their  func- 
tion, therefore  no  minister,  etc.  (concludes  with  a  declaration 
of  their  ineligibilty  to  any  civil  or  military  office). 

Thus  it  appears  that  at  the  very  origin  of  our  State 
government,  when  was  settled  the  policy  which  should 
exist  for  ages,  with  such  modifications  as  a  progressive 
civilization  and  an  advancing  sentiment  of  liberty  might 
require,  our  fathers  recorded  their  experience  of  past 
oppressions  under  priestly  rule,  and  declared  it  to  be  their 
conviction  that  the  safety  of  the  State  from  "spiritual 
oppression  and  intolerance,"  depended  upon  the  limita- 
tion of  the  authority  of  the  clergy  to  what  they  might 
legitimately  acquire  in  their  office  as  spiritual  teachers. 
Very  soon  after  the  adoption  of  the  constitution,  and  in 
1784,  the  legislature  was  called  upon  to  form  a  system 
of  government  of  Church  temporalities,  and  one  was 
carefully  perfected  in  entire  harmony  with  the  theory  of 
our  political  institutions. 

Leaving  the  clergy  "to  the  service  of  God  and  the 
cure  of  souls,"  they  secured  the  independence  of  the 
laity,  and  the  rights  of  conscience,  by  the  most  practical 
limitation  of  the  power  of  the  priesthood  which  could 
be  obtained  by  legislation.  The  act  of  1784  "  to  provide 
for  the  incorporation  of  religious  societies,"  and  which  is 
substantially  the  act  under  which  all  Church  property 
until  very  recently  has  been  held,  provided  that  the  title 
of  such  property  should  be  vested  in  trustees  elected  by 
the  Church,  congregation  or  society,  occupying  and  using 
the  same  for  purposes  of  religious  worship.  Slight  mod- 
ifications of  that  act  have  been  made   to  meet  the  prac- 


12  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

ticc  of  two  or  three  denominations  of  Christians,  but 
none  of  them  yielding  the  great  principle  that  tlie  hiity 
sh(nild  liave  the  substantial  control  of  the  property, 
through  their  representatives  elected  by  the  body  of  the 
Church  or  congregation.  This  develops  to  us  the  policy 
of  the  State,  and  the  constitution  from  which  I  have 
quoted  reveals  the  considerations  which  led  to  its 
adoption. 

It  is  a  policy  alike  cautious  and  republican.  It  recog- 
nizes the  justice  of  placing  the  control  of  consecrated 
property  in  the  hands  of  those  by  whose  sacrifices  and 
bounty  it  was  acquired.  It  manifests  that  jealousy  of 
the  power  of  the  priesthood,  not  necessarily  incident 
to  their  spiritual  office,  which  their  own  experience,  as 
well  as  the  history  of  centuries  of  contest  between  the 
clergy  and  the  laity,  could  not  but  awaken.  This  act 
secured  the  rights  of  conscience  and  the  freedom  of  wor- 
ship. It  realized  a  central  idea  of  the  revolution, — a 
separation  of  Church  and  State.  It  was  a  practical 
embodiment  of  an  American  idea.  A  PRIEST  FOR  THE 
PEOPLE,    AND   NOT   THE    PEOPLE   FOR   A    PRIEST. 

Under  this  act,  all  the  religious  societies  of  the  State 
soon  organized.  Protestant  and  Catholic  alike,  availed 
themselves  of  its  provisions,  and  the  line  of  demarkation 
of  power  between  the  clergy  and  the  laity  contemplated 
by  the  constitution,  and  defined  by  this  enactment,  has 
been  carefully  preserved  until  within  the  last  few  years. 
If  it  sometimes  facilitated  a  change  of  dogmas  in  the 
faith  of  worshipers  of  a  particular  congregation,  it  has 
been  supposed  that  what  was  lost  to  a  self-claimed  ortho- 
doxy, was  more  than  gained  to  the  rights  of  conscience 
and  the  freedom  of  inquiry. 

Under  this  republican  policy,  the  different  denomi- 
nations of  Christians  have   grown  powerful  in  numbers 


CHURCH    I'ROrERTV    BH.L.  1 3 

and  influence,  without  any  abatement  on  the  part  of  the 
people  of  respect  for  their  spiritual  teachers.  On  the 
contrar)',  by  divesting  the  clergy  of  all  power  over  Church 
temporalities,  and  thus  removing  a  cause  of  jealousy  and 
strife,  unhappy  collisions  have  been  avoided,  and  the}' 
have  lived  as  the  spiritual  guides  and  the  friends  of  their 
people,  who,  in  turn,  have  reposed  in  them  that  confidence, 
and  yielded  to  them  that  esteem,  which  belong  to  consis- 
tent piety  and  to  useful  lives. 

Within  the  last  few  }'ears  has  grown  up  in  this  State,  a 
system  of  rule  entirely  antagonistic  to  the  system  I  have 
reviewed,  and  in  violation  of  the  whole  spirit  of  our  con- 
stitution and  laws.  This  is  its  history.  As  early  as  1829, 
it  was  discovered  by  the  prelates  of  the  Catholic  Church, 
that  under  American  institutions,  the  system  of  commit- 
ting the  control  of  Church  temporalities  to  the  laity,  led 
to  a  degree  of  independence  of  the  priesthood,  not  in 
keeping  with  the  absolutism  of  the  Catholic  hierarchy. 
Its  tendency  was  to  divide  power  with  the  clergy.  To 
meet  this  difficulty,  the  following  ordinance  was  passed 
in  the  Grand  Council  of  Bishops,  held  at  Baltimore, 
October   i,  1829: 

Council  of  Baltimore,  October  i,  i82g. 

Whereas  lay  trustees  have  frequently  abused  the  right  {Jure) 
granted  to  them  by  the  civil  authority,  to  the  great  detri- 
ment of  religion  and  scandal  of  the  faithful,  we  most  ear- 
nestly desire  {optamus  inaxime)  that  in  future  no  church  be 
erected  or  consecrated  unless  it  be  assigned  by  a  written 
instrument  to  the  bishop  in  whose  diocese  it  is  to  be  erected 
for  the  divine  worship  and  use  of  the  faithful,  whenever  this 
can  be  done. 

Approved  by  Gregory  XVI.,  October  16,  1830. 

This,  it  will  be  observed,  was  expressive  of  no  more 
than  an  earnest  desire.  It  was  an  appeal  to  the  amia- 
bility of  the  Catholic  congregations. 


14  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

That  appeal  failed  of  its  purpose,  and  so  much  were 
the  people  disinclined  to  comply  with  this  policy,  when 
not  urged  as  a  right,  that  another  step  was  taken  in  1849, 
at  the  seventh  Provincial  Council  of  Bishops  of  the 
United  States,  held  at  Baltimore,  when  a  measure  of 
revolution  was  adopted,  no  less  than  the  divesting  of  the 
Catholic  laity  of  all  power  over  Church  temporalities,  and 
its  centralization  in  the  hands  of  the  priesthood. 

The  fourth  article  of  the  ordinances  of  that  Assembly, 
is  as  follows : 

Art.  4.  The  Fathers  ordain,  that  all  churches  and  all  other 
ecclesiastical  property,  which  have  been  acquired  by  dona- 
tions or  the  offerings  of  the  faithful,  for  religious  or  char- 
itable use,  belong  to  the  bishop  of  the  diocese;  unless  it  shall 
be  made  to  appear,  and  be  confirmed  by  writings,  that  it  was 
granted  to  some  religious  order  of  monks,  or  to  some  congre- 
gation of  priests  for  their  use. 

This  is  no  less  than  an  act  of  confiscation.  It  does  not 
even  recognize  the  right  of  property  in  those  by  whose 
bounty  it  was  purchased,  but  it  arrogates  to  the  bishops 
an  actual  proprietorship,  and  by  absolute  decree  of  this 
ecclesiastical  council,  so  far  as  it  could  be  enforced  by 
persuasion  and  discipline,  transfers  the  possession,  con- 
trol and  ownership  of  millions  of  property  from  the  laity 
to  the  clergy. 

This  was  a  policy  on  the  part  of  the  Catholic  clergy, 
no  less  bold  in  its  antagonism  to  the  whole  theory  of  our 
government,  than  happily  adapted  to  the  objects  of 
control  at  which  it  seems  to  have  been  aimed. 

It  may  be  added,  that  this  ordinance  was  submitted 
to,  and  received  the  approval  of,  the  Pope  of  Rome. 

Immediately  upon  the  promulgation  of  this  new  order, 
the  bishops  in  their  respective  dioceses  throughout  the 
United  States,  commenced  the  effort  to  obtain  the  sur- 


CHURCH   PROPERTY   BILL.  I  5 

render  of  all  corporate  churches  on  the  part  of  their  con- 
gregations, and  the  transfer  to  them  individually,  of  the 
titles  to  Church  property,  cemeteries,  seminaries  of  learn- 
ing, hospitals,  etc.  In  most  instances  in  this  State,  it 
being  made  a  test  of  good  Catholicism,  these  transfers 
were  made  without  protracted  resistance.  In  other 
instances,  among  congregations  imbued  with  the  spirit  of 
our  free  institutions,  and  who  had  learned  to  recognize  as 
just  the  division  of  power  between  the  clergy  and  the 
laity  which  our  civil  polity  had  established,  this  demand 
was  resisted.  The  Catholic  laity  claimed  that  their  rights 
did  not  exist  by  mere  sufferance  of  the  clergy.  That 
having  organized  into  corporations  in  pursuance  of  our 
laws,  they  were  bound  as  good  citizens  to  abide  by  the 
policy  of  the  government  whose  protection  they  enjoyed. 
When  this  resistance  was  protracted,  it  led  to  the  most 
unhappy  controversies.  And  wherever  the  congregations 
have  finally  refused  to  yield  their  franchises,  and  surrender 
their  titles  in  obedience  to  the  Baltimore  ordinance,  they 
have  suffered  the  severest  penalties  which  can,  in  this 
country,  be  inflicted  upon  the  Catholic  communicant. 
The  Church  of  St.  Louis,  in  the  city  of  Buffalo,  is  one  of 
the  congregations  which  have  adhered  to  the  policy  of 
the  State.  This  congregation  is  composed  of  a  French 
and  German  population,  most  of  whom  have  been  for 
many  years  residents  of  the  United  States. 

Their  petition  to  this  body  details  an  unhappy  contro- 
versy of  several  years.  The  real  estate  upon  which  their 
church  edifice  was  erected,  was  in  1829  conveyed  for  the 
use  of  a  Catholic  congregation  to  be  thereafter  organized, 
by  the  late  Louis  Le  Couteulx,  a  man  most  honorably 
associated  with  the  history  of  his  adopted  city  and  State. 
In  1838  the  congregation  was  organized  under  the  laws  of 
this  State,  and  seven  trustees  elected,  in  whom  the  title 


l6  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCEIJ-ANIES. 

vested  by  virtue  of  the  act  in  relation  to  reliLjious  corpo- 
rations. Ik'fore  the  passage  of  tlie  Baltimore  ordinance, 
Bishop  Hughes  "attempted  to  compel  the  trustees  to 
convey  the  title  of  this  Church  property  to  him."  After 
the  Baltimore  ordinance,  more  vigorous  measures  were 
set  in  operation  by  the  bishop  of  that  diocese,  to  compel 
the  transfer  of  the  title.  A  son  of  the  grantor  of  the 
land  made  a  visit  to  the  Head  of  the  Church  at  Rome,  to 
obtain  an  equitable  adjustment  of  the  controversy.  The 
result  was,  the  deputation  of  Archbishop  Bedini,  a  nuncio 
of  the  Pope,  to  visit  the  Church,  and,  if  possible,  settle  its 
difficulties.  The  nuncio  refused  any  terms,  except  those 
which  had  been  previously  made  by  the  bishop,  compli- 
ance with  the  Baltimore  ordinance,  and  transfer  of  title. 
In  September  last  the  bishop  made  his  final  proposition 
for  an  adjustment,  which  was  rejected. 

For  this  adhesion  to  our  laws  on  the  part  of  the  St. 
Louis  congregation,  their  trustees  have  been  excommuni- 
cated. Every  sacrament,  every  sacred  privilege  most  dear 
to  the  sincere  Catholic,  have  been  denied  the  members  of 
the  congregation. 

In  their  petition  they  say : 

For  no  higher  offense  than  simply  refusing  to  violate  the 
Trust  Law  of  our  State,  we  have  been  subjected  to  the  pains 
of  excommunication,  and  our  names  held  up  to  infamy  and 
reproach.  For  this  cause,  too,  have  the  entire  congregation 
been  placed  under  ban.  To  our  members  the  holy  rites  of 
baptism  and  of  burial  have  been  denied.  The  marriage  sacra- 
ment is  refused.  The  priest  is  forbidden  to  minister  at  our 
altars.  In  sickness,  and  at  the  hour  of  death,  the  holy  conso- 
lations of  religion  are  withheld.  To  the  Catholic  churchman 
it  is  scarcely  possible  to  exaggerate  the  magnitude  of  such 
deprivations. 

We  yield  to  none  in  our  attachment  to  our  religion,  and 
cheerfully  render  to   the   bishop    that    obedience,  in    spiritual 


CIIURCir    PROPERTY   KILL.  IJ 

matters,  \vhi(-h  the  just  interpretation  of  our  faitli  may  rcfjuire; 
hut  in  res])ect  to  the  tem])oralities  of  our  C'hurch,  we  claim  the 
right  of  obeying  the  hiws  of  tlie  State,  whose  ijrotection  we 
enjoy. 

Wliile  the  bishops  have  been  securing  the  transfer  to 
themselves  of  the  title  of  Church  property  consecrated  at 
the  time  of  the  action  at  Baltimore,  they  have  taken  in 
every  instance  in  this  State,  so  far  as  I  can  ascertain,  the 
title  of  all  property  which  since  that  action  has  been  pur- 
chased for  Church,  educational,  or  charitable  purposes,  in 
connection  with  the  Catholic  communion.  In  the  county 
of  Erie  alone,  nearly  sixty  different  conveyances  of  lands 
have  been  made  to  John  Timon,  the  bishop  of  the  Buffalo 
diocese,  during  the  last  seven  years,  and  the  value  of  this 
property  is  estimated  at  over  one  million  dollars.  This 
property  consists  of  sites  of  churches,  cathedrals,  hos- 
pitals, and  educational  establishments,  besides  a  large 
amount  of  yet  vacant  lands.  Some  estimate  may  be 
formed  of  the  vast  aggregate  of  property  now  vested  in 
the  three  Catholic  bishops  of  New  York,  from  this  state- 
ment in  relation  to  a  single  county  which  contains  but 
one  city,  and  that  having  but  seventy  thousand  inhab- 
itants. The  legal  effect  of  this  proprietorship  in  the 
bishop,  is  to  vest  the  absolute  title  in  him  as  an  individ- 
ual, so  that  were  he  to  die  intestate,  it  would  go  to  his 
heirs.  But  it  is  presumed  that  he  lives  with  an  executed 
will  which  devises  his  property  to  his  successor  in  office, 
thus  practically  creating  a  close  corporation  sole  in  the 
bishop  of  the  diocese. 

This  then  is  the  present  position  of  this  question. 

Our  constitution  and  policy  are  republican. 

The  State  guarantees  the  freedom  of  worship  and  the 
liberty  of  conscience  to  all  its  citizens.  As  a  part  of  its 
polic}',  and  to  prevent  that  undue  influence  of  the  priest- 


l8  ADDRESSES   AND   MISCELLANIES. 

hood  over  the  people  whicli  is  aHkc  incompatible  with  the 
personal  freedom  of  the  citizen,  and  with  the  safety  of 
the  State,  it  has  engrafted  the  popular  element  upon  the 
system  of  rule  in  Church  property. 

The  State  finds  a  counter  policy  in  the  Catholic  Church. 
Its  democratic  system  is  met  and  antagoni/xd  by  the  ab- 
solute element  of  a  spiritual  power  defiant  of  all  our 
usages  and  laws. 

It  finds  millions  of  property  wrested  from  the  hands 
of  congregations,  and  concentrated  in  individual  eccle- 
siastics. 

It  finds  a  priesthood,  not  content  with  the  legitimate 
influence  which  belongs  to  their  character  as  spiritual 
guides,  securing  a  power  over  timid  consciences  little  less 
than  absolute,  through  their  control  over  every  consecrated 
place. 

It  finds  this  system  of  rule  creating  bitter  dissensions 
between  priest  and  people,  dangerous  to  the  peace  of 
society. 

It  finds  itself  called  upon  by  Catholic  congregations, 
whose  only  crime  is  that  they  have  obeyed  the  laws, 
to  interpose  between  them  and  these  ecclesiastical  ex- 
actions. 

Has  the  State  a  duty  to  perform  in  view  of  these 
facts  ? 

What,  sir,  will  the  State  answer  to  the  Church  of  St. 
Louis,  and  other  congregations  sympathizing  with  it, 
whose  sufferings  for  adhering  to  our  laws  are  so  forcibly 
depicted  in  their  petition?  To  say  nothing  of  the  great 
principles  involved  in  this  question,  on  which  side  should 
be  found  the  sympathy  of  the  government  ?  With  those 
who  seek  to  establish  a  policy  at  war  with  its  own  system, 
or  with  those  who  would  respect  your  policy  and  obey 
your  laws?     Should  it  be  with  that  absolutism  that  toler- 


CHURCH    PROPERTY    BILL.  I9 

atcs  no  freedom  of  speech,  no  license  of  opinion,  and 
which  can  grow  strong  only  at  the  expense  of  your  vigor, 
and  can  become  dominant  only  upon  the  ruins  of  repub- 
lican liberty?  Or  shall  that  sympathy  be  extended  to 
those  who,  cherishing  the  Catholic  religion,  would  mould 
its  polic)'  to  the  theory  of  our  government,  and  would 
submit  their  system  of  rule  to  that  modification  which  it 
must  receive  from  contact  with  institutions  like  ours?  I 
cannot,  as  a  legislator,  nor  would  I  have  the  State  look 
with  indifference  on  a  controversy  like  this.  On  the  one 
side  is  priesthood,  panoplied  with  all  its  powder  over  the 
pockets  and  consciences  of  its  people,  armed  with  the  ter- 
rible enginery  of  the  Vatican,  seeking  in  open  defiance  of 
the  policy  and  laws  of  the  State,  to  wrest  every  inch  of 
sacred  ground  from  the  control  of  the  laity,  property 
secured  by  their  sweat  and  sacrifices,  and  to  vest  it  in  the 
solitary  hands  of  a  single  bishop,  that  he  may  close  the 
door  of  the  sanctuary,  put  out  the  fires  upon  its  altar,  and 
scourge  by  his  disciplinary  lash  every  communicant,  from 
its  sacraments,  ordinances  and  worship,  who  dares  think  a 
thought  independent  of  his  spiritual  master.  On  the 
other  hand,  we  see  a  band  of  men  who  have  lived  long 
enough  in  their  adopted  country  to  have  the  gristle  of 
their  liberal  opinions  hardened  into  bone,  men  devoted  to 
the  Church  of  their  fathers,  but  who  love  the  State  to 
which  they  have  sworn  allegiance  and  who  respect  its 
institutions,  we  see  them  resisting  with  a  heroism  u^hich 
would  honor  the  age  of  heroes,  unitedly,  unwaveringly,  in 
defiance  of  bulls  of  excommunication  from  bishop,  legate, 
and  the  Pope,  every  attempt  to  override  our  laws,  and  to 
establish  on  the  soil  of  Freedom  the  temporal  supremacy 
of  a  priesthood. 

Sir,  the  Muse  of  History  has  rarely  transcribed  to  her 
records,  an   act   of   heroism    surpassing    that    which   was 


20  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

enacted  at  the  Church  of  St.  Louis,  in  Buffalo,  on  the 
tenth  of  September,  1854,  when,  after  years  of  painful 
controversy  with  the  hi<^hest  authorities  of  the  Papal 
Church,  its  congrey,ation  met  its  bishop  to  decide  upon 
his  Jiltiinatuni.  That  ultimatum  was,  that  the  congrega- 
tion should  elect  trustees,  to  be  selected  by  himself.  In 
other  w'orcis,  he  would  allow  the  congregation  to  be  the 
throne,  but  he  \vas  to  be  the  power  behind  it !  How'  did 
they  meet  this  ultimatum?  As  martyrs,  refusing  to  yield 
the  tithe  of  a  hair  from  their  original  position.  And 
there  stands  to-day,  a  proud  monument  of  the  devotion 
of  that  people  to  a  true  citizenship,  that  magnificent  edi- 
fice, as  for  five  years  it  has  stood  under  the  curse  of  the 
bishop.  There,  still  floats  over  its  tower,  the  black  flag, 
symbolical  of  the  darkness  which  envelops  the  altar 
over  which  it  weaves,  bearing  the  significant  inscription, 
"Where  is  our  Shepherd?"  That  church  is  the  political 
Thermopylae  of  the  age. 

Sir,  these  Catholic  citizens  of  Buffalo  to-day  appeal  to 
the  State  through  their  representative  for  protection  in 
this,  their  fidelity.  Urged  to  violate  their  oaths  of  alle- 
giance to  your  laws,  they  have  kept  them  inviolate.  On 
which  side,  again  I  ask,  shall  the  State  be  found?  Will 
it  be  with  that  powder  which  exalts  its  head  above  the 
State,  which  makes  obedience  to  you  the  signal  for  excom- 
munication and  the  fatal  interdict  ?  Aside  from  the  ques- 
tion of  justice,  has  the  State  no  dignity  to  maintain? 
Were  the  question  never  so  insignificant,  it  would  be  its 
duty  to  vindicate  its  authority,  and  to  hedge  up  by  legis- 
lation against  its  indirect  violation. 

When  it  ceases  to  be  sovereign,  it  sinks  into  contempt. 
No  free  State  should  tolerate,  nor  can  it  long  silrvive, 
an  impcrium  in  imperio,  which  lives  defiant  of  the  civil 
power. 


CHURCH    PROrERTY   BILL.  21 

I  propose  to  .submit  a  few  considerations  why  we  should 
not  second  the  poHcy  of  the  Baltimore  ordinance.  To  say 
nothing  here  of  the  political  antagonisms  of  the  Romish 
policy  to  our  institutions,  I  would  remark,  that  no  clergy, 
of  any  denomination  or  faith,  should  be  vested  with  the 
power  contemplated  by  that  ordinance. 

I  yield  to  no  man  in  a  due  respect  for  the  spiritual 
office,  but  there  is  to  be  found  in  its  very  nature  a  reason 
why  it  should  not  be  associated  with  temporal  power. 
It  was  the  teaching  both  of  his  observation  and  his  histor- 
ical studies  which  led  Lord  Clarendon  to  say,  that  "  of  all 
mankind,  none  were  so  ill-fitted  for  the  management  of 
affairs  as  the  clergy."  Whenever  invested  with  civil 
power,  or  with  those  elements  of  control  outside  of  their 
influence  as  spiritual  guides  which  operate  upon  the  con- 
sciences and  pockets  of  men,  they  have  as  a  class  been 
the  enemies  of  toleration,  and,  when  forming  a  part  of  the 
civil  power  of  the  State,  the  defenders  of  its  abuses  and 
of  its  efforts  to  crush  dissent  and  independency.  Not  to 
Catholic  States  alone  need  we  go  for  the  proofs;  they  are 
to  be  found  in  the  history  of  the  English  Church  from 
Henry  VIII.  to  the  present  century,  and  to  every  other 
era  of  clerical  domination.  The  "  Convocation,"  an  assem- 
bly of  the  established  clergy,  even  after  the  revolution 
of  1688  claimed  to  be  independent  of  parliament,  and 
dictated  to  it  a  policy  destructive  of  all  toleration  save  for 
the  doctrines  of  the  Establishment.  Great  as  is  the  debt 
of  gratitude  due  from  the  Christian  world  to  William  of 
Orange,  for  no  one  act  of  that  great  statesman  and  true 
friend  of  civil  liberty  is  it  more  indebted  than  for  his  final 
prorogation  of  that  body. 

The  Corporation  and  Test  acts,  which  so  long  disgraced 
the  statutes  of  England,  and  the  acts  relating  to  Catholic 
disabilities,   always    found    defenders    in    the   established 


22  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

clergy.  When  Fox  and  Ikirkc  led  the  attacks  in  the 
l^ritish  parliament  aijainst  these  oppressive  statutes, 
mitered  bishops  entered  the  list  to  oppose  them,  as  if 
religion  could  not  exist  out  of  the  Church.  '^Episcopacy 
may  fail,  hut  religion  exist,'"  was  the  noble  reply  of  Burke, 
and  to  a  Protestant  laity  is  Eni^land  indebted  for  the 
great  triumph  of  religious  liberty  secured  by  the  repeal 
of  those  acts.  Clergymen  naturally  feel  that  they  have 
charge  of  the  most  important  of  all  possible  interests,  the 
souls  of  men.  Confident  of  the  truth  of  their  own  dogmas, 
and  looking  upon  schism  and  dissent  as  fatal  heresy,  they 
are  easily  led  to  the  belief  that  it  is  their  highest  duty  to 
bring  all  the  enginery  of  the  Church  and  the  State  to 
crush  out  the  first  appearance  of  a  revolt  from  their 
Church  formulas  and  Church  economies.  If  it  is  said  that 
this  argument  holds  good  only  with  the  clergy  of  an  Estab- 
lished Church,  I  answer  it  is  because  an  Establishment  can 
invoke  the  aid  of  the  civil  power  to  compel  conformity 
and  embarrass  dissenters.  The  same  element  of  intoler- 
ance, allow  it  full  development  and  license,  exists  in  the 
bosom  of  every  spiritual  teacher. 

But,  I  answer  further,  that  in  permitting  a  powerful 
Church  to  obtain  the  control  contemplated  by  this  ordi- 
nance, which,  where  it  may,  invokes  the  civil  arm  to  crush 
out  all  dissent  from  its  faith,  we  cherish  one  of  the  most 
dangerous  evils  of  an  Establishment. 

An  Establishment  is  a  constituent  element  of  the  State, 
and  aids  in  the  formation  of  its  laws,  and  gives  tone  and 
shape  to  its  policy.  So  far  as  it  can  bring  the  co-ordinate 
branches  of  the  government  to  adopt  its  views,  so  far  it 
is  felt  as  a  power  for  weal  or  for  woe.  The  danger  to 
liberty,  and  the  injustice  to  non-conformists  and  to  dis- 
senters, consists  in  the  power  to  control,  and  it  is  only 
dangerous  as  it  possesses  that  power.     But  here,  sir,  in 


CHURCH    PROrERTY   BILL.  23 

the  bosom  of  this  free  State,  we  find  a  hierarchy  having 
no  sympathies  with  our  institutions,  but  in  direct  antag- 
onism to  the  principles  on  which  they  rest,  admitting  no 
supreme  fealty  to  the  civil  power,  but  acting  under  the 
impulsive  energy  of  its  Italian  center  and  head,  not  as  a 
co-ordinate  part  of  the  government,  but  exalting  itself 
above  the  State,  and  regulating  its  millions  of  Church  prop- 
erty utterly  defiant  of  our  policy  and  our  laws.  It  stands 
before  us  naked  of  apology,  and  can  plead  nothing  but  the 
sic  volo  of  an  usurped  prerogative. 

To  favor  the  despotic  control  over  the  consciences  of 
vast  masses  of  our  citizens,  and  consequently  over  their 
action,  which  the  Baltimore  policy  would  concentrate  in 
a  score  or  two  of  bishops  throughout  the  United  States, 
leads  to  many  of  the  evils  of  a  union  of  Church  and  State. 
Our  government  seeks  the  disintegration  of  this  power. 
The  theory  of  the  Catholic  Church  is,  that  it  must  be  a 
unit — a  unit  in  doctrine,  a  unit  in  practice.  The  Catholic 
priest,  under  the  most  liberal  of  systems,  has  a  vast  influ- 
ence over  his  charge  by  virtue  of  his  office.  Superadded 
to  this,  when  he  is  invested  with  the  power  which  the  abso- 
lute proprietorship  of  all  sacred  places  can  give  him,  when 
the  altar  belongs  to  the  priest,  when  the  church  and  cathe- 
dral are  his,  where  the  Catholic  hopes  to  worship  while 
living;  when  the  cemetery  is  his,  securing  to  him  the  keys 
of  the  consecrated  grave  ;  when  the  hospital  is  his,  admis- 
sion to  whose  charities  is  upon  the  terms  he  shall  dictate ; 
when  the  Catholic  colleges  and  other  seminaries  of  learn- 
ing are  his ;  when  the  tens  of  millions  of  property,  the 
donations  of  the  faithful,  are  all  the  absolute  proprietor- 
ship of  the  priest,  have  you  not  the  elements  of  a  "  power 
in  the  State,"  whose  harmlessness  rests  only  in  its  forbear- 
ance? Is  it  said  this  power  will  not  be  exercised?  That, 
if  tempted  by  some  future  Catiline  to  conspire  against 


24  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

the  liberties  of  the  i)e()j)le,  it  will  spurn  the  offer?  Is  tliis 
the  lesson  of  history?  So  judi^ed  not  our  fathers  who 
framed  the  first  State  constitution,  and  who  declared  in 
letters  which  should  be  graven  upon  the  American  heart 
as  with  "  a  pen  of  iron,"  that  in  founding  the  basis  of  free 
empire  they  "were"  j'cqi/ircf/  to  <^ua.rd  against  "that  spir- 
itual oppression  and  intolerance  wherewith  the  bigotry 
and  ambition  of  weak  and  wicked  priests  have  scourged 
mankind."  Distrust  of  power  is  written  all  over  our  con- 
stitution and  our  laws.  The  elements  of  po\\er  most 
provoking  this  distrust  were  the  spiritual  and  the  money 
power.  The  one  w'as  paralyzed,  so  far  as  was  necessary 
to  render  it  harmless,  by  establishing  the  freest  license  of 
religious  sentiment,  the  right  of  dissent  from  any  or  all 
dogmas,  the  right  of  revolt  from  all  Church  economies, 
leaving  responsibility  for  his  faith  to  the  conscience  of  the 
citizen  and  to  his  God.  Every  new  sect  diminished  this 
power,  and  thus  schism  became  an  element  of  political 
security.  Thus  were  drawn  the  teeth  of  the  spiritual 
power.  The  money  power  was  rendered  harmless  by  our 
statute  of  distributions  and  of  inheritance,  by  prohibiting 
the  entailing  of  estates,  by  preventing  accumulations  in 
corporations,  by  the  process  of  distribution  of  that  power 
rather  than  of  its  concentration.  Our  statute  in  relation 
to  religious  corporations  is  one  of  the  most  marked  and 
happy  illustrations  of  this  principle,  where  every  member 
of  each  separate  congregation  who  contributes  to  the  sup- 
port of  worship,  has  a  voice  in  the  control  of  the  Church 
property,  and  a  recognized  proprietorship  therein. 

The  Baltimore  ordinance  is  the  antagonism  of  all  this. 
It  abhors  the  policy  of  disintegration,  and  seeks  the  ab- 
solute control  over  the  laity  by  the  concentration  of  the 
spiritual  and  temporal  powder  in  the  priesthood.  Two 
millions  of  Catholic  communicants  in  the  United  States, 


CHURCH   PROPERTY   BILL.  25 

and  probably  thirty  millions  of  consecrated  property,  and 
all  under  the  absolute  control  of  perhaps  fifty  bishops, 
and  they  acknowledging  allegiance  to  a  foreign  and  abso- 
lute potentate  !  Continue  this  policy  for  fifty  years,  when 
the  Catholic  population  shall  be  twenty-five  millions,  and 
the  property  of  the  fifty  bishops  almost  beyond  computa- 
tion, and  I  venture  to  say  that  the  Church,  represented  in 
its  ecclesiastics,  will  be  stronger  than  the  government, 
and  will  dictate  the  terms  of  its  existence !  The  crush- 
ing weight  of  such  a  power  can  be  lifted  only  by  the 
strong  hand  of  Revolution.  All  the  statutes  of  mort- 
main, which  English  parliaments  could  devise,  did  not 
save  the  necessity  of  the  confiscation  of  the  estates  of 
the  Catholic  clergy  to  save  the  ascendency  of  the  crown. 
France  affords  another  illustration.  It  was  a  corrupt 
priesthood,  enriched  at  the  expense  of  labor,  which  bol- 
stering up  the  Bourbon  throne,  with  it  as  an  ally,  ground 
the  million  masses  to  powder.  Church  exactions  and 
State  oppressions  were  the  wrongs  which  exorcised  from 
the  deeps  of  popular  rage,  the  Genius  of  Revolution, 
which  swept,  as  with  iron  hail,  every  vestige  of  regal  and 
ecclesiastical  rule  from  the  land.  The  Triumvirate  rode 
the  whirlwind,  and  for  a  time  guided  the  storm,  but  they 
did  not  create  them.  They  were  the  natural  offspring  of 
abuses  in  Church  and  in  State. 

Mexico  is  to-day  a  living  illustration  of  the  tendency 
of  Church  accumulations,  when  unrestrained  by  law.  It 
is  almost  literally  the  proprietorship  of  the  Catholic 
Church.  And  there  the  heavings  of  one  revolution  have 
hardly  subsided  before  we  feel  the  convulsive  throes  of 
another.  New  York  is  not  without  her  experience  of  the 
evils  of  large  landed  estates  acquired  before  the  revolu- 
tion. The  original  crown  grants  to  Trinity  Church  are, 
if  vested  rights  cannot  be  disturbed,  constant  objects  of 


26  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

jealous)'  and  distrust.  Even  now  the  question  of  subniit- 
tin<;-  their  titles  to  judicial  scrutiny  is  ur^^ed  to  the 
lci;islaturc  as  a  great  measure  of  public  policy. 

The  accomplished  attorney-general  (Ogden  Hoffman), 
whom  I  now  see  before  me,  is  already  instructed  to  bring 
them  before  the  judicial  tribunals. 

The  large  landed  estates  in  some  of  our  eastern  coun- 
ties have,  in  late  years,  led  to  revolutionary  excesses  alike 
reproachful  and  perilous.  So  much  opposed  are  they  to 
the  spirit  of  our  institutions,  that  their  proprietors  have 
felt  compelled  to  compromise  their  legal  rights,  and  to 
take  steps  looking  to  an  entire  surrender,  upon  considera- 
tions agreed  upon  by  parties  interested,  of  their  feudal 
tenures  and  policy.  Our  last  State  constitution  has  care- 
fully guarded  against  the  possibility  of  the  introduction 
into  the  State  of  this  system  of  tenantry. 

There  is  another  reason  of  State  why  the  control  of 
Church  property  should  be  in  the  laity. 

Our  government  is  anomalous.  It  depends  for  its 
security  upon  the  development  of  the  higher  elements  of 
the  individual  man.  It  places  upon  him  the  responsibility 
of  rule.  If  he  be  the  slave  of  a  priesthood,  the  first  politi- 
cal allegiance  of  his  heart,  whether  he  be  a  native  or  an 
adopted  citizen,  will  be  elsewhere  than  to  the  government 
which  protects  him.  If  he  surrender  a  portion  of  his 
franchise  to  his  spiritual  teacher,  he  will  soon  be  prepared 
to  surrender  all  his  judgment,  all  his  political  individu- 
ality, to  the  same  ambition. 

The  consciousness  of  that  independence  of  spiritual 
control  which  proprietorship  in  sacred  places  creates,  is 
one  of  the  processes  of  development  of  individual  man- 
hood which  the  State  cannot  afford  to  surrender.  Prop- 
erty is  power.  The  State  has  a  positive  interest  in 
retaining   that  element   of    influence   in  hands  where  its 


CHURCH    PROPERTY    lULL.  27 

possession  will  lead  to  attachment  and  fealty  to  its  gov'- 
ernment.  The  peoi)le  should  trace  tlieir  r\<^]\t  to  worship 
in  consecrated  places  built  by  their  own  sacrifices,  to  the 
government,  which  would  by  its  beneficence  win  the 
affections  of  its  citizens,  and  not  to  an  ecclesiastic  who 
will  make  blind  submission  to  his  authority  the  terms  of 
spiritual  consolation,  and  of  admission  to  consecrated 
ground. 

There  is  another  consideration  why  the  clergy  should 
not  step  out  of  their  sphere  as  spiritual  teachers,  affecting 
themselves.  The  purity  of  the  clergy  depends  upon  their 
separation  from  the  secularizing  tendencies  of  politics  and 
power.  There  can  be  no  just  respect  for  that  office  when 
associated  with  secular  affairs.  They  are  not  above  the 
reach  of  temptation.  Their  preservation  from  demorali- 
zation depends  upon  their  seclusion  from  the  paths  of 
ambition.  We  are  not  without  examples  which  should 
ever  be  as  a  waving  sword  between  them  and  the  avenues 
to  temporal  power.  "  I  have  chosen  you,  twelve,"  said 
the  Saviour  of  the  world,  "  and  one  of  you  is  a  devil." 
Mammon, 

"  The  least  erected  spirit,  that  fell 
From  Heaven," 

was  the  seducer  of  Judas. 

The  thirty  pieces  of  silver  have  paved  the  road  to 
infamy  for  many  of  the  successors  of  the  betrayer  of  his 
Lord. 

The  Romish  Church  is  not  without  its  distinguished 
examples  of  spiritual  death  through  the  influence  of  a 
grasping  ambition.     Wolsey, 

"  That  once  trod  the  ways  of  glory, 
And  sounded  all  the  depths  and  shoals  of  honor," 

on  the  exposure  of  his  schemes  to  compass  the  power  of 
the  throne,  and  "  gain  the  popedom,"  uttered  to  his  faith- 


28  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

fill  Cromwell  a  scntiincMit  which  the  poet  has  invested 
with  the  charm  of  his  <^enius,  but  without  the  slightest 
addition  to  its  truth  or  power. 

"  Cromwell,  I  charge  thee,  fling  away  ambition, 
By  that  sin  fell  the  angels.     How  can  man  then, 
The  image  of  his  Maker,  hope  to  win  by't?" 

What  wonder  that  this  poor  cardinal,  who  was  glad  to 
beg  a  little  earth  for  charity,  that  he  might  lay  down  his 
weary  bones  and  die,  should  exclaim  in  view  of  his  fall, 

" O  Cromwell,  Cromwell, 

Had  I  but  served  my  God  with  half  the  zeal 
I  served  my  king,  he  would  not  in  mine  age 
Have  left  me,  naked,  to  mine  enemies." 

It  is  the  history  of  the  Church  in  every  age,  that  its 
purest  examples,  and  most  eminent  piety,  were  among 
those  who  literally  went  "  about  their  Master's  business," 
entirely  separate  from  the  objects  of  ordinary  ambition. 

The  general  argument  I  have  pressed  would  hold  good 
in  relation  to  any  body  of  ecclesiastics  ;  the  evils  of  the 
policy  of  placing  this  power  in  a  priesthood,  are  incident 
to  the  system,  whatever  may  be  the  spiritual  character  or 
relations  of  the  clergy  who  may  be  vested  with  the  power 
I  have  deprecated.  But  there  is  another  view  of  this  sub- 
ject to  be  taken,  which  looks  to  the  peculiar  danger  to  our 
institutions,  which  wmII  grow  from  the  union  of  the  spirit- 
ual and  temporal  power  in  the  Catholic  priesthood.  And 
that  I  may  not  be  misunderstood,  I  wish  here  to  say  that 
all  I  have  said,  or  may  say  hereafter,  in  relation  to  the 
Catholic  policy,  and  the  danger  involved  in  it,  is  confined 
entirely  to  the  ecclesiastical  policy  of  that  Church,  and 
not  to  its  doctrines  of  religious  faith.  With  these  T  have 
nothing  to  do.  I  have  no  controversy  .with  a  man  who 
worships  saints  and  believes  in  the  "  real  presence."  I 
have  no  doubt  there  is  a  broad  road  to  Heaven  through 
the   Catholic   Church.     I   may  think  much  or  little  of  a 


CHURCH    PROrERTY   BILL.  29 

congress  of  bishops  from  the  ends  of  the  world,  who  shall 
meet  in  the  Seven-hilled  City,  and  sit  for  days  at  the  feet 
of  the  Papal  See  resolving  the  "  Immaculate  Conception 
of  the  Virgin."  It  may  not  accord  with  my  views  of 
what  themes  should  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury occupy  so  wise  a  body,  but  certainly  it  is  a  harmless 
discussion,  and  ma}'  be  a  harmless  faith.  I  have  to  do 
with  a  policy  other  than  mere  dogmas  of  this  character. 

A  law  which  shall  prohibit  the  accumulation  of  prop- 
erty in  the  hands  of  the  Catholic  bishops  I  deem  vitally 
necessary  as  a  measure  of  safety  to  our  political  institutions. 

We  cannot  neglect  to  impose  these  legislative  restraints, 
and  take  care  that  the  State  suffer  no  detriment.  A  pop- 
ular government  may  still  be  an  experiment,  and  time, 
under  the  happiest  influences  that  human  wisdom  can 
devise,  may  prove  their  fatal  tendency  to  decay  and  disso- 
lution. But  we  are  committed  to  this  experiment.  All 
our  character  as  a  nation,  all  our  pride  in  past  achieve- 
ment, all  our  confidence  in  present  security,  all  our  hopes 
of  future  glory,  are  concentrated  in  the  hopeful  capacity 
of  intelligent  man  for  self-government.  We  are  bound  to 
give  this  experiment  a  fair  trial,  to  protect  it  in  all  consti- 
tutional ways  against  every  influence  adverse  to  its  success. 
The  political  theory  of  the  Catholic  hierarchy  is  in  direct 
antagonism  to  the  republican  principle.  Its  theory  is, 
that  the  individual  man  is  absorbed  in  the  Catholic  relig- 
ionist, and  the  religionist  in  the  head  of  the  Church.  The 
first  allegiance  of  the  true  Catholic,  according  to  the 
theory,  is  to  the  papal  power,  his  allegiance  to  human 
governments  entirely  subordinate.  This  doctrine  is  as 
boldly  avowed  in  this  country  as  it  is  in  Rome.  One  of  the 
most  carefully  written  papers  of  Mr.  Brownson,  in  his 
Catholic  Review,  a  gentleman  of  high  endowments,  and 
who   has   recently,  in  an  appointment  to  a  professorship 


30  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

in  a  Catholic  university,  received  the  highest  evidence  of 
Catholic  confidence,  maintains  this  doctrine. 

This  principle  and  its  most  natural  illustration,  are 
found  in  a  recent  number  of  the  Civila  Catollica,  pub- 
lished at  Rome,  and  the  immediate  organ  of  the  Pope. 
That  paper,  of  date  fifth  of  August,  1854,  submits  the 
following  to  the  world  : 

That  excommunication  (of  a  ruler)  by  the  Church  has,  as  an 
unavoidable  result,  the  dissolution  of  the  tie  of  subjection  and 
of  the  oath  of  fidelity. 

I  take  the  liberty  of  quoting  the  language  of  the  New 
York  TribiiJie,  commenting  upon  the  declaration,  which 
well  says: 

According  to  this,  if  a  Pope  should  lay  his  ban  upon  the 
Government  of  the  United  States,  Catholic  subjects  of  that 
government  would  become  ipso  f ado  absolved  from  all  fidelity 
thereto. 

The  quotation  which  I  made  from  the  Civila  Catollica, 
published  at  Rome,  declaring  that  "  excommunication  by 
the  Church  has,  as  an  unavoidable  result,  the  dissolution 
of  the  tie  of  subjection  and  the  oath  of  fidelity,"  is  almost 
a  literal  translation  of  an  article  of  the  canon  law,  which 
is  found  in  Decretal  i.  v.,  title  "i^J,  c.  13,  ''Domino  cxcoin- 
inunicato  tnanente,  suhditi  fidelitatcni  noii  debcnt,  ct  si 
longo  tempore  in  ea  perstiterent,  et  nionitus  non  pareat 
ecclesieE,  ab  ejns  debite  absolventerT  (While  a  prince  is 
under  excommunication,  his  subjects  do  not  owe  him 
obedience,  and  if  he  shall  continue  for  a  long  time  under 
it,  and  shall  not  obey  the  commands  of  the  Church,  they 
are  absolved  from  his  allegiance.)  [See  4th  vol.  Hallam's 
History  of  the  Middle  Ages,  p.  93,  Philadelphia  edition  of 
1821.] 

This,  sir,  is  the  theory,  and  in  accordance  with  it,  is  all 


CHURCH    PROPERTY    BILL.  3 1 

their  discipline,  even  their  oaths  of  office  pledge  to  this 
policy  all  their  spiritual  teachers. 

Now  what  is  the  position  of  affairs  in  this  country? 
We  have  two  million  Catholics,  ministered  to  by  hun- 
dreds of  priests.  Who  are  these  Catholics?  The  great 
mass  of  them  are  foreigners,  many  of  them  from  the  most 
absolute  governments,  governments  in  which  the  Catholic 
religion  is  the  religion  of  the  State,  where  the  political 
education  of  the  Church  has  been  that  blind  submission 
to  the  spiritual  and  the  political  power,  is  the  duty  of  the 
true  Catholic.  Through  this  mutual  support  of  the 
hierarchy  by  the  government  and  the  government  by  the 
hierarchy,  through  its  control  over  the  Catholic  conscience, 
the  absolute  element  in  European  politics  has  been  main- 
tained. Revolution  has  slumbered — the  Church  has  ad- 
ministered the  narcotics.  Who  are  the  spiritual  teachers 
of  our  Catholic  citizens?  A  native  clergy?  No,  sir,  the 
native  is  the  exception  to  the  rule  almost  universal.  The 
Catholic  priesthood  of  this  country  are  generally  foreign- 
ers, educated  in  the  most  absolute  doctrines  of  Papal 
supremacy,  who  have  no  faith  in  human  progress,  who 
regard  the  doctrine  of  individual  independence  as  heresy. 
From  necessity  they  are  the  enemies  of  republican  insti- 
tutions. Why  is  this?  Republican  institutions  favor  the 
right  of  private  judgment.  They  invite  the  individual  to 
break  away  from  a  blind  submission  to  his  spiritual  guide, 
and  to  repose  his  conscience  in  the  keeping  of  his  God. 
They  deny  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope,  and  demand  to 
the  government  the  first  political  allegiance  of  the  citizen. 
Hence  their  whole  policy  is  to  disintegrate  that  power 
which  the  Church  is  permitted  to  wield  in  despotisms. 

Should  the  State  look  with  indifference  upon  this  for- 
eign control  of  this  vast  mass  of  mind,  educated  in  this 


32  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

doctrine  of  blind  obedience  to  a  power  that  assumes  to 
be  superior  to  the  State  ? 

Whatever  of  influence  the  clergy  can  retain  through 
their  office  as  teachers,  while  acting  in  conformity  with 
our  systems  of  polity,  which  are  themselves  adapted  for 
general  safety,  is  well.  But  it  is  madness  in  the  State  to 
permit  a  policy,  the  antagonism  of  its  own,  to  obtain, 
which  tends  to  weaken  the  tie  of  citizenship,  while  it 
builds  up  an  overshadowing  power  of  money  and  influ- 
ence, all  of  which  is  under  the  control  of  the  most  abso- 
lute potentate  on  the  earth. 

Why  was  this  ordinance  of  Baltimore  enacted,  trans- 
ferring the  consecrated  property  of  two  millions  of  Amer- 
ican citizens  to  a  half  hundred  foreign  priests  ?  W' hy 
was  this  policy  adopted  for  free  America,  which  can  exist 
nowhere,  except  with  the  most  absolute  governments  of 
Europe  ?  It  was  a  stroke  of  policy  worthy  the  conception 
of  a  Hildebrand,  far-seeing,  appreciative  of  the  contagious 
character  of  our  institutions,  and  of  their  influence  on 
the  American  Catholic  mind.  No  wonder  it  met  the 
approval  of  the  Roman  Pontiff.  That  policy — perhaps 
the  confession  is  indiscreet,  but  I  do  not  purpose  any  con- 
cealments in  what  I  have  to  say — was  necessary  to  retain 
the  absolute  ascendancy  of  their  priesthood  over  the 
Catholic  communion.  Nothing  short  of  this  concen- 
tration of  power  and  influence  could  retain,  in  blind  sub- 
servience, a  generation  of  Catholics  born  under  our 
government.  He  would  be  comparatively  a  wise  man, 
who  should  hope  to  press  down  with  the  palm  of  his  hand 
the  heavings  of  the  volcano,  or  by  a  word  to  appease  the 
spirit  of  the  storm  as  it  rides  forth  on  the  blast,  to  him 
who  should  hope  for  the  birth  and  education  under  our 
republican  system,  of  a  generation  of  men  of  a  foreign 
parentage,  who  would  bear  the  yoke  of  priestly  rule  as 


CHURCH    PROPERTY   BHX.  33 

tamely  as  did  their  fathers.  There  is  contagion  in  the 
spirit  of  hberty.  Undoubted!}-  that  "  abuse,"  spoken  of 
in  the  Baltimore  ordinance,  which  consists  in  a  claim  on 
the  part  of  the  laity  to  be  represented  in  the  temporal 
power  of  the  Church,  and  to  seek  its  adaptation  to  our 
own  general  system  of  rule,  did  exist,  even  as  early  as 
1829.  That  it  now  exists,  to  a  degree  which  threatens  to 
weaken  the  power  of  the  clergy  over  matters  not  legiti- 
mate to  them,  is  evidenced  by  the  struggle  between  the 
laity  and  the  priesthood,  in  almost  every  State  of  the 
Union.  Not  in  the  Church  of  Buffalo  alone,  is  found  this 
.spirit  oi  protest  against  the  absolute  claims  of  the  clergy. 
The  Church  of  St.  Peter  of  Rochester  is  in  the  same 
controversy,  and  among  other  congregations,  I  under- 
stand, in  the  city  of  Troy,  and  New  York,  in  Cincinnati, 
in  Louisville,  in  Detroit,  indeed  all  over  the  country, 
either  covertly  or  openly,  are  to  be  found  in  the  Catholic 
mind  the  workings  of  the  republican  leaven.  I  do  not 
mean  by  this  that  any  revolution  is  in  progress  in  relation 
to  mere  theologic  questions.  I  believe  there  are  none, 
but  the  controversy  is  purely  in  relation  to  questions  of 
control,  and  of  limitation  of  the  clerical  power  to  their 
office  as  spiritual  teachers. 

« 

But  the  Church  will  answer  me,  that  unless  the  priest 
control  the  altar,  there  is  danger  of  schism,  and  that  it 
will  invite  their  people  to  protest  against  Church  dogmas 
and  Church  polity.  I  would  reply  that  this  is  the  land  of 
dissent,  that  its  institutions  tolerate  and  invite  dissent, 
that  they  were  founded  by  those  who  were  said  by  Eng- 
land's most  philosophic  statesman  to  have  embraced  a 
religion  which  was  the  very  "  dissidence  of  dissent,"  and 
that  its  government  cannot  employ  itself  in  forging 
chains  for  the  human  mind,  or  fetters  for  the  conscience. 
On  the  contrary,  it  encourages  research,  it  is  hopeful,  and 


34  ADDRESSES   AND   MISCELLANIES. 

not  fearful  of  schisms  <^ro\ving  out  of  enlightened  inquiry 
on  all  (juestions  of  policy  or  faith.  Its  distrust  is  of  the 
individual.  Its  confidence  is  in  the  species.  In  an  ear- 
lier day,  when  were  urged  to  parliament  the  same  reasons 
for   forbidding   the    publication    of   dissenting   opinions, 

Milton,  that 

"  Great  orb  of  song," 

uttered  a  sentiment  worthy  of  him  and  of  his  age,  which 
is  expressive  of  the  confidence  of  the  spirit  of  American 
democracy : 

When  the  cheerfulness  of  the  people  is  so  sprightly  up,  that 
it  has  not  only  wherewith  to  guard  well  its  own  freedom  and 
safety,  but  to  spare,  and  to  bestow  upon  the  solidest  and  sublim- 
est  points  of  controversy  and  new  invention,  it  betokens  us  not 
degenerated,  nor  drooping  to  a  fatal  decay,  by  casting  off  the 
old  and  wrinkled  skin  of  corruption,  to  outlive  these  pangs, 
and  wax  young  again,  entering  the  glorious  ways  of  truth  and 
prosperous  virtue,  destined  to  become  great  and  honorable  in 
these  latter  ages. 

Was  it  not  our  country,  upon  which  the  prophetic 
vision  of  his  mind  rested,  in  that  sublime  rhapsody,  when 
even  his  genius  was  kindled  with  unwonted  fires  ? 

Methinks  I  see  in  my  mind,  a  noble  and  puissant  nation, 
rousing  herself  like  a  strong  man  after  sleep,  and  shaking  her 
invincible  locks.  Methinks  I  see  her  as  an  eagle,  mewing  her 
mighty  youth,  and  kindling  her  undazzled  eyes  at  the  full  mid- 
day beam,  purging  and  unsealing  her  long-abused  sight  at  the 
fountain  itself,  of  heavenly  radiance,  while  the  whole  noise  of 
timorous  and  flocking  birds,  with  those  also  that  love  the  twi- 
light, flutter  about,  amazed  at  what  she  means,  and  in  their 
envious  gabble,  would  prognosticate  a  year  of  sects  and 
schisms. 

No,  sir,  the  Catholic  hierarchy  cannot  ask  our  govern- 
ment to  aid  in  perpetuating  its  venerable  dogmas,  or  its 
hoary  political  abuses.     The  day  has  passed  in  all  govern- 


CHURCH   PROPERTY   BILL.  35 

ments  embodying  in  any  considerable  degree  the  popular 
element,  which  regards  the  plea  o{  prescription  in  behalf 
of  ancient  opinions,  errors,  or  systems.  The  age  is  a  liv- 
ing demurrer  to  this  defense.  Our  government  has  but 
one  reply  to  this  cry  of  alarm,  that  in  republicanizing  the 
system  of  rule  over  Church  temporalities,  we  weaken  the 
tie  between  the  priest  and  the  people,  and  invite  to 
independency  and  dissent. 

Being  a  government  of  dissent,  and  popular  in  all  its 
theory,  it  cannot  be  moulded  to  meet  more  absolute  sys- 
tems of  rule.  It  admits  the  transplantation  to  its  soil  of 
every  exotic,  spiritual  or  political,  that  can  find  it  genial 
to  its  nature.  Whether  they  are  so,  and  can  bear  the 
transplantation,  or  whether  they  languish  and  die,  is  of 
no  interest  to  the  Genius  of  American  Democracy.  Its 
office  is  spent  when  it  has  taken  care  that  the  State  suffer 
no  detriment,  and  that  there  spring  up  in  its  midst  no 
hostile  element  of  power. 

I  know  the  Catholic  priesthood  have  no  sympathy  with 
these  sentiments,  nor  with  the  spirit  of  the  age  which  gen- 
erates them.  They  as  stoutly  deny  the  rights  we  claim 
for  their  people  as  they  did  under  the  iron  rule  of  the 
Gregories.  Upon  every  other  system  which  has  come  in 
contact  with  modern  civilization,  more  or  less  impression 
has  been  made,  modifying  their  severe  features,  and  con- 
forming them  to  the  more  liberal  policy  of  the  age.  But 
the  Procrustean  bed  of  Catholic  politics  remains  un- 
changed. In  the  crucible  of  the  Centuries,  its  system  of 
rule  has  undergone  no  transmutation.  It  took  Anglo- 
Saxon  Protestantism  but  about  two  centuries  to  work  out 
its  illiberality  and  intolerance.  It  did  not  spring  like 
Minerva  from  the  head  of  Jupiter,  a  complete  creation  from 
its  birth.  In  Old  England  and  in  New,  its  origin  was 
marked  by  the  sentiment  of  a  persecuting  age,  and  blood 


36  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

was  found  upon  its  i^armcnts.  But  it  bore  within  itself 
the  elements  of  its  own  purgation,  and  to-day  it  stands 
before  the  world  regenerated  from  its  intolerance,  and  full 
panoplied  in  all  the  elements  of  a  liberal  civilization.  It 
has  a  free  press  and  open  Bible,  an  universal  education 
and  a  tolerant  government.  It  takes  struggling  human- 
ity by  the  hand,  and  leads  it  up  to  the  heights  of  per- 
sonal character.  It  leaves  man,  not  a  blind  worshiper 
at  the  outer  door,  but  invites  him  to  the  inner  shrine  of 
great  Nature's  Temple,  and  to  be  himself,  as  a  priest,  in 
the  service  of  Truth  and  of  God.  Such  is,  in  the  middle  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  that  Genius  of  REVOLT  against 
abuses  of  Church  and  of  State,  named  PROTESTANTISM. 
One  more  general  view  of  this  subject. 

Catholic  States,  consistent  in  their  theory  that  heresy 
is  crime,  close  the  doors  against  all  protest,  and  crush  out 
by  penalties,  by  exile  or  death,  all  who  defy  the  omnipo- 
tent authority  of  the  Church.  It  is  to  be  remembered 
that  while  Spain  and  Portugal  are  Catholic  countries,  ours 
is  a  Protestant  country,  and  in  its  highest  sense,  a  Prot- 
estant government.  I  know  the  State,  as  such,  recog- 
nizes no  religion  as  peculiarly  its  own.  But  in  its  sym- 
pathy, in  its  tone,  in  its  spirit  and  in  its  origin,  it  is 
Protestant.  What  constitutes  a  country  ?  Surely  not 
that  alone  which  belongs  to  its  physical,  but  that  which 
pertains  to  its  moral,  its  social,  its  intellectual,  its  politi- 
cal character.  It  is  found  in  its  civilization,  in  its  senti- 
ments, in  its  heart-enthroned  prejudices  which  have 
themselves  become  principles,  guiding-stars  of  a  people's 
thought,  and  the  impelling  power  to  a  nation's  action. 
Judged  by  this  standard,  ours  is  a  Protestant  country  and 
a  Protestant  government.  Protestantism  for  the  most 
part  formed  its  early  settlement.  Protestantism  laid  the 
basis  of  our  State  and  National  institutions.     A  Protest- 


CHURCH   PROPERTY   BUA..  37 

ant  laity,  independent  in  political  action  of  priestly  con- 
trol, infused  into  all  our  policy  that  liberal  leaven  which 
has  given  the  utmost  freedom  to  religious  opinion  and 
worship,  and  enabled  even  the  Catholic  hierarchy  to 
grow  so  dominant  in  our  midst.  The  Catholic  clergy  and 
their  Italian  head  have  no  claim  upon  our  comity  to  sac- 
rifice a  national  policy  to  a  transatlantic  system,  the 
direct  antagonism  of  our  own. 

It  is  proper,  before  concluding  my  remarks,  to  analyze 
a  little  more  particularly  the  bill  under  consideration. 

The  first  section  seeks  to  invalidate  future  conveyances 
to  priests  and  bishops,  in  their  official  character.  It 
would  prevent  the  evils  of  permitting  ecclesiastics  to 
become  in  fact,  corporations  sole,  with  power  to  acquire 
lands  in  perpetuity. 

The  second  section  invalidates  all  future  conveyance  of 
lands  consecrated  or  appropriated,  or  intended  so  to  be, 
to  purposes  of  religious  worship,  unless  made  to  a  religious 
corporation  organized  under  our  laws.  This  is  to  prevent 
the  future  accjuisition  of  that  class  of  property  in  the 
hands  of  individual  priests. 

The  third  section  seeks  to  execute  a  moral  trust  wher- 
ever such  a  trust  exists  in  the  hands  of  individuals,  by 
declaring  that  property,  of  the  character  named  in  the 
second  section,  shall  be  deemed  to  be  held  in  trust  for 
the  benefit  of  the  congregation  using  the  same,  and  shall 
vest  in  their  corporations  after  the  decease  of  the  person 
holding  the  legal  title.  In  this  respect,  it  is  analagous  to 
our  statute  of  Uses  and  Trusts,  by  turning  a  trust  estate 
into  a  legal  estate,  and  vesting  the  absolute  title  in  the 
party  having  the  equitable  interest. 

Section  four  declares  that  the  property  shall  escheat  to 
the  State,  on  the  decease  of  the  party  holding  the  legal 


38  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCKI,LANIES. 

title,  unless  the  coiigrei^ation   sh;ill   so  far  conform  to  our 
system  and  laws,  as  to  or^^anize  into  a  corporation. 

Section  five  recognizes  this  estate  so  vesting  by  eschca 
in  the  people,  as  a  moral  trust,  and  provides  for  the  con- 
veyance of   the  property  to    the   trustees  of   the   society 
using  the  same  whenever  the  society  shall  organize  into  a 
corporation. 

The  whole  object  of  these  latter  provisions,  is  to  compel 
bishops  and  priests  of  whatever  denomination,  Prostestant 
if  such  there  be,  or  Catholic,  to  permit  the  incorporation 
of  their  societies,  in  order  to  protect  their  titles.  If  they 
will  not  obey  the  laws  of  the  land,  will  not  conform  to 
its  policy,  they  are  without  the  pale  of,  and  have  no  claim 
on,  its  protection  in  relation  to  this  class  of  property. 

I  would,  in  passing,  remark  that  even  with  the  free 
consent  of  their  congregations,  the  State  ought  not  to 
permit  so  insecure  a  trust  of  so  vast  possessions.  The 
want  of  a  subscribing  witness  to  a  will,  or  some  other 
statute  informality,  not  to  name  any  other  cause,  would 
transfer  the  entire  consecrated  property  in  the  diocese  in 
the  Catholic  connection,  to  the  next  of  kin  to  the  bishop. 
The  remedy  for  so  great  an  outrage  would  exist  only  in 
the  free  will  of  those  in  whom  the  laws  of  inheritance 
should  vest  the  title. 

This  is  not  novel  legislation.  Both  it  and  its  occasion 
have  their  counterpart.  Let  us  look  for  a  moment  into 
the  iron  visage  of  the  past,  and  see  in  it  the  reflex  image 
of  our  present. 

The  spirit  of  English  liberty  was  ever  jealous  of  priestly 
prerogative.  Having  the  sole  control  over  spiritualities, 
the  Catholic  clergy  were  in  the  middle  ages,  as  now,  active 
in  securing  the  same  centralization  in  themselves,  of 
temporal  power.  They  understood  the  philosophy  of 
human  nature  well  enough  to  know,  that  the  possession  of 


CHURCH   PROPERTY   BILL.  39 

the  physical  wealth  of  the  State,  would  greatly  facilitate 
their  attainment  of  all  other  desirable  influence.  Through 
this,  the  Church  could  control  the  consciences  of  the 
people,  and  the  policy  of  kings.  Hence  it  was,  that  in 
the  darkest  hour  of  the  middle  ages,  when  the  English 
throne  scarce  had  a  being  sav^e  at  the  pleasure  of  the 
Roman  Pontiff,  nearly  one-half  the  real  estate  of  the 
kingdom  was  absorbed  in  the  Catholic  Church.  The 
Church  was  everything,  royalty  but  its  shadow.  The 
spirit  of  English  liberty,  whenever  it  incited  revolt  against 
abuses,  attacked  the  grasping  element  of  the  Papal  hie- 
rarch}\  and  it  never  felt  that  it  had  achieved  a  substantial 
victory  which  did  not  diminish  that  overshadowing  power, 
and  prevent  its  acquisition  of  real  estate.  So  vital  was 
this  regarded,  so  essential  to  the  liberty  of  the  citizen, 
that  it  was  provided  in  magna  cJiarta  itself,  that  great  bill 
of  rights  of  Englishmen,  that  lands  should  not  thereafter 
be  given  in  mortmain  to  religious  houses — that  is,  to 
remain  forever  from  ordinary  use  and  alienation.  This 
statute  was  evaded  by  the  clergy  through  the  system  of 
leasing  lands,  to  prevent  which,  was  passed  the  statute  of 
I  Edward,  de  viris  rcligionis  (concerning  priests),  which 
forfeited  to  the  crown  lands  taken  in  mortmain.  The 
following  is  a  copy  of  this  provision : 

No  person,  religious  or  other  whatsoever  body  politic,  eccle- 
siastical or  lay,  sole  or  aggregate,  shall  buy  or  sell  any  lands  or 
tenements,  or  under  the  color  of  gift  or  lease,  or  by  reason  of 
any  title  receive  the  same,  or  by  any  other  craft  or  engine,  shall 
presume  to  appropriate  to  himself,  whereby  such  lands  may  in 
any  wise  come  into  mortmain,  under  pain  of  forfeiture  of  the 
same.  And  within  the  year  after  the  alienation,  the  next  lord 
of  the  fee  may  enter.  And  if  he  do  not,  then  the  next  imme- 
diate lord  from  time  to  time  to  have  half  a  year,  and  in  default 
of  all  the  mesne  lords  entering,  the  king  shall  have  the  lands  so 
alienated  forever,  and  shall  enfeoff  others  by  certain  services. 


40  ADDRESSES   AND   MISCELLANIES. 

This  was  again  evaded  by  false  actions,  and  judgments 
obtained  b)'  collusion,  whence  titles  called  coiiunon  recov- 
eries, which  was  met  by  another  statute  in  the  same  reign. 
The  next  device  to  evade  the  statute,  was  by  conveying 
lands  in  trust  for  the  use  of  the  clergy,  to  meet  which, 
parliament  passed  an  act  of  forfeiture  in  the  reign  of 
Richard  II.,  unless  held  by  consent  of  the  king.  The 
compulsory  feature  of  nearly  all  the  English  acts  of  mort- 
main consists  in  the  forfeiture  of  the  lands  to  the  crown, 
which  were  grasped  by  the  clergy  in  violation  of  the 
policy  and  law  of  the  land. 

The  last  general  English  statute  on  this  subject,  passed 
in  the  reign  of  George  II.,  as  well  as  the  statute  of  43 
Elizabeth,  specially  designates  what  grants  and  devises 
shall  be  lawful  for  charitable  uses,  and  invalidates  every 
conveyance  and  devise  not  authorized  by  those  acts.  To 
watch  the  clergy,  has  been  the  business  of  parliaments, 
to  save  their  lands  from  mortmain,  the  business  of  the 
people,  for  centuries  past ;  well  is  it  if  it  be  not  so  for 
centuries  to  come. 

The  great  end  to  be  attained  by  this  bill,  as  I  have 
argued  at  length,  is  to  divest  the  clergy  of  the  power  of 
control  over  Church  temporalities.  The  only  modification 
of  this  bill  I  have  heard  suggested,  authorizes  the  bishop 
of  the  diocese  to  appoint  three  trustees,  should  the  con- 
gregation decline  to  avail  themselves  of  their  legal  privi- 
leges of  incorporation.  This  would,  in  my  judgment, 
leave  the  evil  almost  untouched.  The  result  would  be, 
that  that  discipline  which  has  compelled  so  many  con- 
gregations to  surrender  their  charters,  would  be  brought 
to  bear  upon  them,  to  compel  them  to  waive  their  rights 
under  the  bill,  and  allow  the  bishop  to  select  his  own 
trustees.  This  was  the  very  point  which  Bishop  Timon 
was  at  last  prepared  to  yield  to  the  Church  of  St.  Louis. 


CHURCH    PROPERTY   RILL.  4I 

Of  course  the  bishop  would  in  every  instance  select  the 
most  facile  instruments,  who  would  be  invested  with  a 
nominal  authorit)-,  but  leaving  the  control  still  absolute 
in  himself  To  resist  his  will,  would  require  as  much 
fortitude  then,  as  now,  and  how  few  congregations  but 
would  endure  almost  any  privation,  rather  than  suffer  as 
all  resisting  Cathoh'c  congregations  have  suffered.  I  take 
the  liberty  of  reading  an  extract  from  a  letter  addressed 
to  me  by  an  eminent  Catholic,  and  a  trustee  of  the  Church 
of  St.  Louis,  in  Buffalo,  bearing  witness  to  these  per- 
secutions.    He  says: 

In  the  United  States  of  late  years,  the  archbishops  and 
bishops,  setting  their  will  above  the  laws,  met  in  a  synod  at 
Baltimore  and  adopted  a  decree  by  which  no  church  was  to 
be  consecrated,  if  not  previously  deeded  to  the  archbishop  or 
bishop  in  whose  diocese  it  was  situated !  Not  satisfied  with 
that  awful  step,  they  declared  an  unrelenting  war  against  all 
the  incorporated  Catholic  congregations,  and  by  incessant 
demands,  threats,  all  kinds  of  religious  deprivations,  and  lastly 
by  excommunication,  succeeded  in  destroying  those  lawful 
associations. 

In  Buffalo  there  is  now  but  the  St.  I.ouis  Catholic  Church 
which  is  incorporated,  but  to  what  religious  deprivation  have 
they  not  been  condemned  by  their  bishop  for  their  resistance 
to  his  will  !  Their  priests  taken  away  from  their  church,  the 
congregation  deprived  of  religious  marriage,  the  sick  of  the 
holy  sacraments,  and  their  trustees  excommunicated  !  Indeed, 
it  is  no  wonder,  after  so  much  suffering,  that  so  many  Catholic 
congregations  should  have  submitted  to  their  bishops  in  annul- 
ling their  charters  and  deeding  their  churches  to  them. 

Says  the  Nuncio  Bedini,  in  his  farewell  letter  to  the 
Church  of  St.  Louis: 

The  bishop  does  not  ask  for  himself  the  administration,  he 
is  ready  to  place  it  in  the  hands  of  members  of  your  own 
congregation,  but  appointed  by  /li/ii. 

4 


42  ADDRESSES   vVND    MISCELLANIES. 

Tn  his  farewell  letter  to  Bishop  Timon,  in  alluding  to 
the  "obstinacy"  of  the  congregation,  he  foreshadows  the 
awful   denunciations  to  which  they  have  been  subjected. 

I  consider  them  as  not  being  Catholics  at  heart,  and  Rt. 
Rev.  Sir,  should  your  Episcopal  ministry  inspire  you  to  declare 
so,  in  any  iuay\  in  order  that  good  Catholics  may  know  who 
are  their  brethren  and  who  are  not,  I  leave  it  to  your  dis- 
cretion, and  to  your  holy  inspirations. 

So  much  for  the  former  Governor  of  Bologna,  and  his 
tender  mercies,  alike  tender  to  the  brave  Ugo  Bassi,  in 
whom  were  rekindled  the  ancient  patriotism  and  genius 
of  Italy,  and  to  the  persecuted  Church  of  St.  Louis. 

How  do  the  horrors  of  the  fatal  "  Interdict  "  rush  upon 
our  minds  as  we  read  of  this  conflict  between  the  people 
and  the  priest  ! 

Wordsworth's  sonnet  was  written  of  another  age  and 
country,  but  its  application  is  not  all  inappropriate  to 
republican  America : 

Realms  quake  by  turns,  proud  arbitress  of  Grace, 
The  Church,  by  mandate  shadowing  forth  the  power 
She  arrogates  o'er  Heaven's  eternal  door, 
.     Closes  the  gates  of  every  sacred  place. 

Straight  from  the  sun  and  tainted  air's  embrace, 

All  sacred  things  are  covered,  cheerful  morn 

Grows  sad  as  night,  no  seemly  garb  is  worn, 

Nor  is  a  face  allowed  to  meet  a  face 

With  natural  smile  of  greeting.     Bells  are  dumb. 

Ditches  are  graves,  funeral  rites  denied, 

And  in  the  churchyard  he  must  take  his  bride, 

Who  dares  be  wedded.     Fancies  thickly  come 

Into  the  pensive  heart,  ill-fortified. 

And  comfortless  despairs  the  soul  benumb. 

I  cannot  resist  the  impulse  to  read  one  additional 
paragraph  from  the  same  letter,  expressing  the  sentiment 
of  a  vast  body  of  intelligent  Catholics  throughout  the 
land.     He  says : 


CHURCH    TROPERTY    BILL.  43 

It  is  highly  time  that  the  legislature  should  cast  an  eye  of 
commiseration  and  protection  upon  us  by  the  adoption  of  a 
law  putting  a  stop  to  the  encroachments  of  the  bishops  and 
Catholic  clergy  in  general,  specifying  that  all  Church  property 
should  only  be  possessed  by  their  right  owners,  the  people  who 
have  paid  for  them. 

I  will  only  add,  that  this  is  but  one  of  many  similar 
expressions  I  have  received  from  the  Catholic  laity  of 
different  congregations  in  the  State.  And  has  it  come 
to  this,  that  the  Catholic  laity  of  our  State  implore  its 
legislature  to  "  commiserate  and  protect  "  them  from 
ecclesiastical  outrage  ?  Will  New  York  refuse  this  pro- 
tection ?  They  have  asked  for  bread  ;  will  she  give  them 
a  stone  ?  They  have  asked  that  she  maintain  the  spirit 
of  her  own  laws ;  will  she  allow  it  to  be  borne  down  by 
the  despotic  policy  of  a  priesthood  ? 

I  said  in  the  outset  that  this  bill  struck  at  no  universal 
practice  of  the  Church. 

In  France,  the  temporal  administration  of  the  Church 
is  in  the  council  of  Fabrique  (board  of  trustees)  who  are 
chosen  b}'  the  municipal  council,  the  latter  being  elected 
by  the  people  in  the  several  communes.  In  part  of  the 
German  States,  Belgium  and  other  parts  of  the  continent 
which  have  been  under  the  French  domination,  the 
Catholic  temporalities  are  administered  in  the  same  man- 
ner, by  laymen.     The  same  polity  exists  in  Switzerland. 

In  France  the  clergy  cannot  accept  donations  by  will 
or  otherwise  for  any  benevolent  establishment,  without 
the  sanction  of  the  government,  and  then  to  be  under 
the  control  of  the  civil  power. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  policy  which  has  confis- 
cated twenty-five  millions  of  property,  belonging  to  two 
millions  of  American  citizens,  to  a  half  hundred  priests 
whose  first    allegiance    is    to   the  Papal    See,  is  a  policy 


44  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCETJ.ANTES. 

especially  reserved  for  republican  America  !  This  off- 
shoot of  Absolutism,  which  can  flourish  nowhere  outside 
of  Spain  and  the  Papal  dominions,  where  deceased  Prot- 
estants are  buried  like  dogs,  if  buried  at  all,  where  the 
torch  of  persecution  is  ever  lighted,  has  been  trans- 
planted, has  grown,  and  flourished  on  the  soil  of  Free- 
dom !  This  is  the  political  paradox  of  the  age.  It  is 
deeply  implanted,  and  already  begins  to  overshadow  the 
State.  But  one  question  is  unsolved :  will  you  now  lay 
the  legislative  axe  to  the  root  of  this  Upas,  or  will  you 
leave  it  to  be  uptorn  at  a  future  day  by  the  storm  of 
Revolution  ?  * 

*  See  Appendix  "A." 


INDEPENDENCE  DAY  AT  LOCKPORT.        45 


INDEPENDENCE    DAY. 

Oration  Delivered  at  Lockport,  N.  Y.,  July  4,  1856. 


What  is  the  political  right  of  individual  man  ?  What 
the  just  relations  of  the  ruled  to  the  ruler,  involving,  as 
they  do,  the  social  and  moral  duties  of  the  State  to  the 
citizen  ?  This  is  the  question  of  the  day — debated  wher- 
ever civilized  man  is  organized  into  societies.  If  there 
were  a  solvable  problem  in  political  philosophy,  it  would 
seem  that  this  were  one.  Yet  the  world  is  still  debating 
antagonistic  theories ;  it  is  still  engaged  in  the  old  contro- 
versy between  radicalism  and  conservatism  ;  between  a 
confident  democracy,  jealous  of  all  power  save  its  own, 
and  ancient  authority,  claiming  the  veneration,  while  it 
exhibits  the  decrepitude  of  age. 

One  thing  is  certain  :  A  perfect  commonwealth,  a  social 
and  political  organism,  realizing  all  that  could  be  desired 
in  virtuous  citizenship,  in  industrious  and  rewarded  pur- 
suit, in  happy  homes,  in  elevated  humanity,  where  power 
is  always  just  and  beneficent,  where  weakness  is  helped 
when  it  falls  and  cannot  help  itself,  where  Justice  ever  sits 
on  her  throne  imperial,  weighing  with  exact  scruple  every 
outward  act  affecting  individual  rights  and  human  happi- 
ness, giving  up  the  wronger,  whether  golden  or  rag-plated, 
to  the  whips  of  the  Avenger,  the  armed  Nemesis  of  the 
State,  has  never  existed,  save  in  the  dreams  of  some  Har- 
rington or  Sydney. 

Beautiful,  indeed,  are  the  speculations  of  these  poet 
State-founders ;  and  their  creations,  could  they  be  realized, 


46  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

would  transform  earth  into  Paradise,  liut,  alas  I  the)'  have 
fallen  men,  not  <^ods  or  angels,  on  whom  to  test  their 
theories. 

What  is  the  origin  of  government  ?  What  is  the  origin 
of  kingship  ? 

That  there  must  be  government,  a  supreme  authority 
somewhere,  is  demonstrated  by  the  whole  history  of  man. 
Man  flees  from  solitude  to  society.  An  ascetic  is  a  social 
monster.  In  society  man  is  soon  driven  to  seek  protection 
of  property  and  person  in  a  power  stronger  than  his  single 
arm.  Society  cannot  exist  amid  distrust  and  anarchy,  and 
seeks  to  vest  authority  in  one  of  those  who  by  their  strong 
heads  to  devise,  and  their  strong  wills  to  enforce,  seem 
God-commissioned  to  be  protectors,  if  not  rulers,  of  their 
fellow-men. 

In  this  infant  state  of  society,  too  simple  to  have  dis- 
covered the  intricate  machinery  which  distinguishes  the 
more  enlightened  governments  of  to-day,  is  to  be  found, 
if  anywhere,  the  ruler  by  "  right  divine."  For  it  is  in  the 
midst  of  anarchy  and  lawlessness,  where  weakness  is  timid 
and  force  is  brutal ;  where  insecurity  and  distrust  every- 
where prevail ;  where  the  idea  of  safety  absorbs  every 
other  sentiment,  that  the  true  hero  steps  forth,  having  in 
his  force  of  character  the  credentials  of  power.  It  is  no 
time  for  the  reign  of  stupid  mediocrity  ;  the  rounds  by 
which  ambition  ascends  to  power  are  not  the  golden  ones 
which  form  in  our  days  so  easy  climbing.  Authority  is 
bestowed  or  assumed  where  confidence  centers. 

"  This  man,"  say  the  masses,  "  can  lead  us,  can  think 
for  us.  He  can  overawe  the  proud  ;  he  can  substitute  a 
just  authority  for  brutal  force  ;  he  has  within  him  the 
magnet  of  superiority  which  attracts  the  weaker  elements 
floating  about  and  seeking  a  support  they  cannot  give 
themselves.     This  force  of  character  is  power.     He  is  born 


INDEPENDENCE  DAY  AT  LOCKPORT.        47 

to  govern.  We  will  call  him  father — king.  With  him  are 
protection  and  confidence,  without  him  anarchy  and  civil 
war," 

It  is  often  said  that  kingship  is  an  original  crime,  that 
it  has  ever  had  its  origin  in  violence.  That  a  system  has 
oftentimes  sprung  up  to  make  rule  hereditar)'  that  has 
resulted  in  the  most  oppressive  tyranny,  is  undoubtedly 
true.  But  that,  irrespective  of  the  abstract  equality  of 
natural  rights,  there  is  in  some  men  the  God-given  power 
to  rule,  which  b}'  relations  and  events  becomes  in  some 
phases  of  society  recognized  as  a  right,  it  is,  when  viewed 
in  the  light  of  human  experience,  hard  to  doubt.  But 
are  we  not  all  wisest  ?  Are  we  not  all  equally  capacitated 
to  govern  ?  These  are  questions  which  may  be  calmly 
asked  and  answered  when  society  is  peaceful.  But  look 
at  the  two  contrasts  presented  in  almost  every  age  of 
the  w^orld.  Given,  on  one  hand,  a  rude  state  of  society, 
when  all  is  violence,  when  there  is  no  safety  because  there 
is  no  recognized  authority ;  when  power  is  lodged  in  will, 
and  will  absorbed  into  appetite,  and  appetite  becomes  the 
universal  wolf  ravening  at  pleasure;  or,  given  a  more 
elevated  people,  at  a  fearful  crisis  in  their  history,  when 
the  great  deeps  of  society  have  been  broken  up  by  revo- 
lution, and  law  and  policies  have  been  wrenched  out  of 
their  old  anchorage  by  the  storm.  Observe  the  man  who 
in  either  case  is  self-called  to  rule,  to  put  bits  into  the 
mouth  of  license  in  the  one  instance,  and  to  reconstruct 
society,  to  give  symmetry  and  power  to  its  chaotic 
material  in  the  other.  Then,  on  the  other  hand,  given  a 
state  of  general  peace,  when  party  discipline  ranks  all 
men  in  one  of  two  contending  factions,  arming  their 
leaders  with  disciplinary  scourges,  enabling  them  to  keep 
ranks  unbroken  and  the  traditionary  formulas  of  party  to 
be  everywhere  received,  and  superadd  to  these  the  power 


48  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

of  patronage  derived  from  the  genius  of  jobs,  and  the 
mercenary  element,  alike  disgraceful  when  it  sells  in  the 
market  the  empire  of  Rome  to  Julian,  and  when  it  paves 
the  way  to  power  for  the  smallest  aspirant  that  ever  glit- 
tered his  hour  in  the  Athenian,  the  Roman  or  the  Amer- 
ican canopy,  and  then  contrast  the  Moses  of  the  Israelites, 
a  Mahomet  of  the  middle  ages,  a  Cromwell  and  a  William 
of  the  modern  heroic  time,  and,  finally,  a  Washington, 
invested  with  command  because  he  was  the  wisest  and 
best ;  contrast  these  and  such  as  these,  the  centers  of 
great  systems,  suns  which  having  once  risen  never  set,  but 
impart  both  light  and  heat  to  all  times,  with  those  polit- 
ical accidents,  those  mental  and  moral  negations,  the 
sometimes  results  of  ballot-boxes  in  the  midst  of  a  proud 
and  boastful  civilization,  which  have  proclaimed  with 
emphasis  that  the  wisest  cannot  always  rule — nay,  shall 
not ;  and  we  may  be  less  disposed  to  wonder  that  the 
fiction  of  rule  by  "  right  divine  "  has  so  often  prevailed, 
and  that  upon  it  has  been  erected  systems  of  hereditary 
power  so  antagonistic  to  our  more  popular  theories. 

Whence  and  wherefore,  then,  political  revolutions  which 
lend  so  much  interest  to  all  ages?  Had  kings  been  just 
and  power  beneficent,  the  history  of  the  world  had  not 
been  written,  as  it  has  been,  in  blood.  The  tendency  of 
power  is  to  abuse.  The  oppressions  incident  to  that  abuse 
have  led  to  those  conflicts  between  authority  and  the 
people  which  constitute  the  most  brilliant  records  of  his- 
tory. Conflicts  which  have  developed  while  they  have 
elevated  man,  and  but  for  which  there  would  be  little  in 
the  past  to  cherish  or  in  the  future  to  hope  for.  We  need 
not  ask  Philosophy  why  a  nation  that  has  a  heroic  age 
will  cherish  it,  and  adore  its  heroes.  We  feel  the  answer 
in  our  own  hearts  ;  it  is  to  be  read  in  your  assembling  upon 


INDEPENDENCE  DAY  AT  LOCKPORT.        49 

an  anniversary,  which  as  a  birthday  of  a  new  nationahty 
is  unsurpassed  in  historic  interest. 

Yes,  fellow-citizens,  this  beautiful  month  that  finds  us 
so  pleasantly  assembled,  is  associated  with  the  noblest 
struggles  and  the  most  heroic  achievements  which  have 
made  memorable  the  conflicts  of  the  people  with  power. 
Humanity  seems  to  have  chosen  it  of  all  the  Calendar's 
sisterhood  to  evidence  its  own  claims  to  a  kinship  with  Infi- 
nite Intelligence.  Were  we  indifferent  to  the  history  of 
the  progress  of  ideas  and  institutions,  and  to  the  struggle 
of  States  whose  noblest  achievements  are  associated  with 
this  sacred  month,  it  would  prove  in  us  a  degeneracy 
which  would  soon  invite  the  thraldom  it  would  deserve. 

Were  I  asked,  what  were  the  characteristics,  the  lead- 
ing incentives  to  the  political  revolutions  of  the  last 
three  centuries,  I  should  say  they  were  two-fold.  That 
the  first  and  greatest  struggle  was  for  religious  liberty, 
the  right  of  man  to  worship  God  after  his  own  conscience. 
In  other  words,  modern  revolution  sought  first  to  separate 
the  Church  from  the  State,  taking  issue  with  the  latter 
in  its  claim  of  a  right  to  establish  uniformity  of  religious 
faith  and  worship. 

Allow  me  to  quote  from  a  declaration  of  independence, 
which  has  attracted  less  attention  than  it  ought  in 
modern  times : 

All  mankind  knew  that  a  prince  is  appointed  by  God  to 
cherish  his  subjects,  even  as  a  shepherd  to  guard  his  sheep. 
When,  therefore,  the  prince  does  not  fulfill  his  duty  as  pro- 
tector, when  he  oppresses  his  subjects,  destroys  their  ancient 
liberty,  treats  them  as  slaves,  he  is  to  be  considered  not  a 
prince  but  a  tyrant.  As  such,  the  estates  of  the  land  may 
lawfully  and  reasonably  depose  him,  and  elect  another  in  his 
room. 

Such  was  the  doctrine  laid  down  by  the  founders  of  the 
Dutch   Republic  on  the   twenty-sixth  day  of  July,  1581, 


5o  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

when  after  a  cjuarter  of  a  centur)'  of  the  severest  confliets 
for  religious  Hberty  ever  waged  on  the  bosom  of  this  fair 
earth,  it  set  the  example  followed  two  centuries  after- 
wards by  our  fathers,  of  sundering  political  relations  to 
secure  the  practical  triumph  of  a  principle.  How  far  this 
was  in  advance  of  the  most  liberal  sentiment  in  England, 
may  be  judged  when  it  is  remembered  that  the  House  of 
Stuart  reigned  nearly  half  a  century  after  this  declara- 
tion before  the  doctrine  of  passive  obedience  and  the 
divine  right  of  kings  inspired  the  political  action  of  the 
government. 

It  was  to  throw  off  the  religious  tyranny  of  the  bloody 
Philip  n.,  whose  bigotry  had  turned  all  the  Netherlands 
into  an  Aceldema  to  establish  the  dogmas  and  forms  of 
worship  of  his  own  Church,  that  that  band  of  noble  men 
under  the  lead  of  William  the  Silent,  the  father  of  his 
country  and  the  greatest  of  all  the  glorious  House  of 
Orange,  uttered  this  truth  and  followed  up  the  declaration 
with  acts  of  independence  which  severed  forever  the 
Netherlands  from  the  Spanish  Empire. 

This  w^as  the  leading  revolution,  religious  in  its  charac- 
ter, in  wdiose  conflict  the  blood  of  four  generations  w^as 
poured  out  like  water,  to  which  we  are  indebted,  and  to 
which  England  is  indebted  for  its  deliverance  from  the 
Romish  doctrine  that  heresy  is  crime,  and  that  the  State 
is  subordinate  to  the  Church,  and  that  all  its  enginery, 
moral  and  political,  may  justly  be  brought  into  service  to 
crush  out  all  dissent,  and  compel  the  immortal  soul  to 
dethrone  its  native  spiritual  sovereignty,  and  man  him- 
self to  crawl  from  cradle  to  grave  the  poor  slave  of  a  self- 
appointed  priesthood. 

This  religious  revolution,  resulting  in  the  dismember- 
ment of  the  once  proud  Empire  of  Charles  V.,  and  in 
the  establishment   of  the  Dutch  Republic,  was  the  first 


INDEPENDENCE  DAY  AT  LOCKPORT.        5 1 

national  revolt  for  freedom  of  conscience  against  the  iron 
rule  of  the  Papal  See  under  which  the  Western  powers 
of  Europe  had  groaned  for  centuries.  No  wonder  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers  turned  from  the  persecutions  of  the 
Stuarts  to  the  open  hospitality  and  the  genial  institutions 
of  Holland,  where,  under  the  guidance  of  William  of 
Nassau,  was  the  utmost  toleration  of  religious  opinion, 
and  from  whence  went  forth  to  the  world  the  first  exam- 
ple of  a  State  that  disavowed  both  the  policy  and  the 
right  of  compelling  uniformity  in  religious  doctrine  and 
worship. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  trace  the  progress  of  this 
revolution  which  has  resulted  at  last  in  the  utmost  tolera- 
tion of  religious  opinion  both  in  England  and  in  this 
country,  and  in  the  entire  separation  of  the  Church  from 
the  State  under  our  institutions.  But  time  will  not 
permit. 

The  other  great  struggle  of  the  latter  centuries  carried 
on  mainly  by  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  I  should  say  was  the 
struggle  for  the  civil  rights  of  individual  man — to  fix  the 
boundaries  of  power,  to  establish,  in  other  words,  a  con- 
stitutional government.  As  the  character  of  this  celebra- 
tion does  not  permit  me  to  discuss  public  questions,  now 
occupying  and  unhappily  disturbing  the  harmonious  re- 
lations of  our  beloved  country,  I  have  thought  I  could 
not  more  appropriately  occupy  a  portion  of  the  time 
allotted  to  me,  than  by  tracing  those  revolutions  of 
opinion,  those  great  epochs  in  the  history  of  the  English 
people  which  have  brought  us  to  the  ultimate  bounds  of 
a  rational  liberty. 

While  it  is  easy  to  indicate  one  or  two  popular  move- 
ments which  tended  to  the  establishment  on  these  shores 
of  the  government   we  enjoy  and  love,  it  is  not  easy  to 


52  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

accurately  trace  the  rise  and  early  progress  of  the  senti- 
ment which  finally  sought  this  embodiment. 

For  there  is  scarcely  a  period  in  the  history  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race,  when  the  sentiment  of  personal  liberty 
did  not  glow  in  the  popular  heart.  There  never  was  an 
age  when  their  necks  seemed  fashioned  to  wear  the  yoke 
of  bondage.  The  Norman  conqueror  vanquished  them  by 
the  power  of  numbers  and  imposed  upon  them  the  bur- 
thens of  the  feudal  system.  But  no  king  from  William 
the  Conqueror  down  to  the  unfortunate  House  of  the 
Stuarts,  ever  sat  upon  a  quiet  throne  or  swayed  his  scep- 
tre over  a  wholly  submissive  people.  The  first  great 
event  in  the  history  of  English  liberty  I  shall  notice,  is 
the  charter  of  John,  exacted  at  Runnemede  in  the  13th 
century.  And  here  in  a  rude  age,  when  commerce  had 
scarce  unfurled  a  sail,  and  there  existed  none  of  those 
secular  and  moral  elements  of  revolution  which  entered 
so  largely  in  the  latter  contests,  we  recognize  the  first  prin- 
ciples of  civil  liberty  as  distinctly  as  we  find  them  to-day, 
in  the  immortal  declaration  of  our  own  independence. 
This  charter  was  itself  a  revolution.  It  granted  liberal 
franchises  to  cities  and  towns,  solemnly  guaranteed  the 
right  of  trial  by  jury,  declared  that  justice  should  neither 
be  sold  nor  delayed,  and  relieved  from  many  of  the  op- 
pressive burthens  of  the  feudal  system.  But  these  great 
principles  were  never  sustained  by  the  throne,  except 
when  overawed  by  superior  popular  force,  for  royalty  and 
ecclesiastical  power  were  constantly  endeavoring  to  over- 
leap their  barriers. 

Hence  those  constant  conflicts  between  our  Anglo- 
Saxon  fathers  and  the  throne,  down  to  the  great  strug- 
gle which  brought  Charles  to  the  block,  and  upheaved 
upon  the  ruins  of  monarchy  the  glorious  protectorate  of 
Cromwell. 


INDEPENDENCE  DAY  AT  LOCKPORT.         53 

The  abdication  of  James  II.,  and  the  accession  of 
Wilh'am  and  Mary,  in  1688,  from  wliich  period  the  mother 
land  is  accustomed  to  date  the  final  settlement  of  the 
bounds  of  power,  were  not  of  themselves  so  much  a  rev- 
olution as  the  result  of  that  which  convulsed  the  nation 
during  the  reign  of  the  Stuart  family. 

This  latter  revolution  aided  to  restore  the  next  great 
epoch  in  the  history  of  civil  freedom,  and,  though  it  left 
much  to  be  matured  by  subsequent  effort,  and  something 
to  be  won  by  subsequent  struggle,  planted  upon  a  perma- 
nent basis  the  cardinal  principles  of  civil  liberty. 

It  was  the  only  era  when  all  the  necessary  elements  of 
a  great  revolution  seemed  to  meet  in  the  same  generation. 
The  Reformation  of  Luther  had  taken  firm  root  in  the 
hearts  of  the  people. 

To  the  maintenance  of  the  Puritan  faith  was  directed 
the  wonderful  genius  and  enthusiam  of  the  age — a  faith 
which  defied  the  ingenuity  of  torture  and  smiled  at  the 
kindling  flames  of  martyrdom. 

Certain  causes  had  been  operating  during  the  pre- 
ceding century  to  develop  in  the  English  character  en- 
ergies, faculties  and  a  spirit  which  claimed  for  it  almost 
a  higher  creation,  and  these  were  the  active  elements  of 
that  struggle. 

We  observe  in  these  struggles  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury an  element  which  enters  largely  into  all  revolutions 
in  commercial  States — an  element  begotten  by  the  com- 
mercial spirit  which  had  grown  up  within  a  very  few 
years  in  Great  Britain.  It  was  hostility  to  taxation, 
without  consent  of  the  taxed.  Previous  to  the  discovery 
of  the  Indies,  and  before  the  development  of  the  spirit 
of  accumulation,  we  find  very  little  earnest  hostility  to 
the  systematic  tax  granted  by  feudal  institutions.  The 
barons  had  little  to  do  besides  afford  protection  to  those 


54  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

wlio  bore  thcni  a  feudal  allcL(iancc  and  to  attend  upon 
llu-  wars  of  the  king.  Their  wants  were  few  and  simple, 
and  there  was  nothing  to  foster  the  spirit  of  cupidity. 
Hence  When  the  king  exacted  the  tributes  of  wardship, 
escuage  and  other  taxes,  it  elicited  little  complaint,  for 
their  life,  in  a  commercial  sense,  was  unambitious  and 
unenterprising.  But  with  the  discovery  of  the  Indies 
and  the  breaking  up  of  the  baronial  estates,  and  the 
consequent  increase  of  wealth  among  the  citizens,  was 
called  into  life  a  new  clement  in  the  individual  and  in 
the  State,  destined  soon  to  become  the  pre-eminent  and 
controlling  spirit  of  the  civilized   world. 

This  was  the  spirit  of  commerce — I  mean  by  this,  trade 
in  its  broadest  sense,  and  in  its  widest  sphere. 

James  I.  found  this  the  most  troublesome  element  in 
the  opposition  of  his  parliament.  Almost  the  entire  trade 
of  London  in  his  reign,  and  about  the  year  1620,  was 
confined  to  about  two  hundred  monopolists,  who  had 
purchased  their  privilege  of  the  crown,  and  rewarded  its 
favor  not  only  with  obsequious  fidelity,  but  with  munifi- 
cent responses  to  his  demands  for  supplies.  His  parlia- 
ment resolved  all  monopolies  to  be  a  grievance,  and 
initiated  that  system  of  trade  which  has  rendered  Great 
Britain  the  commercial  colossus  of  the  globe. 

The  commercial  spirit  soon  became  the  pre-eminent 
one.  Men  found  less  pleasure  in  contributing  to  the 
pageantry  of  the  throne,  and  a  greater  in  the  acquisition 
of  the  elements  of  personal  power.  Every  acquisition 
increased  the  sense  of  personal  independence,  and  lessened 
the  sympathies  between  the  throne  and  the  subject.  The 
commercial  spirit  so  created,  broke  down  the  barriers  to 
human  intercourse  and  created  new  sympathies  and 
stronger  ties  between  man  and  his  fellow. 

With  such  spirits  as  a  Milton,  a  Cromwell,  a  Sydney,  and 


INDEPENDENCE  DAY  AT  LOCKPORT.         55 

a  Hampden,  to  guide  them,  it  was  easy  for  a  people  who 
began  to  feel  the  sentiment  of  that  personal  freedom  which 
commerce  ever  begets,  to  regard  government  as  designed 
to  foster,  to  develop  and  to  protect,  not  to  tax,  oppress 
and  enslave  their  subjects.  Intercourse  led  to  exchange  of 
sentiment,  to  the  discussion  of  systems,  to  the  pride  of 
invention  ;  it  elicited  discovery,  it  begat  revolution.  It 
was  amid  all  these  modern  elements,  and  upon  their  con- 
vulsive heavings,  that  Charles  I.  succeeded  to  the  throne, 
with  no  other  idea  of  its  power  than  its  absoluteness  ; 
nor  of  religion,  than  as  a  department  of  State  ;  nor  of  his 
subjects,  than  as  creatures  to  carry  the  burthens  of 
majesty.  Blinded,  perversely  so,  to  the  revolution  actively 
at  work  in  the  popular  mind  and  heart,  his  reign  was 
one  succession  of  outrages  upon  the  constitution,  and 
the  rights  of  people  and  parliament.  The  storm  of  rev- 
olution at  length  burst  over  his  head,  sweeping  away  in  its 
course  the  dynasty  of  the  Stuarts,  and  elevating  the  short- 
lived, but  brilliant  and  ever-glorious  commonwealth  of 
Cromwell. 

These  revolutions  established  the  principle  of  taxation 
by  parliament,  overthrew  the  doctrine  of  passive  obedi- 
ence, and  opened  the  way  for  the  establishment  in  the 
western  world  of  a  government  recognizing  and  protect- 
ing all  the  natural  and  acquired  rights  of  man.  They  left 
of  the  feudal  system  nothing  but  a  few  dim  shadows 
which  still  lie  across  the  abyss  of  the  past  and  the  present 
age,  which  are  now  recognized  rather  as  symbols  of  our 
deliverance  than  as  elements  of  harm. 

The  next  revolutionary  epoch  whose  spirit  and  result  we 
are  naturally  led  in  this  review  to  contemplate,  is  our  own 
American  revolution,  which  we  are  met  this  day  to  honor. 
It  was  during  the  period  we  have  just  been  considering, 
that  the  Puritan  Pilgrim  sought  his  home  in  the  Western 


56  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

World,  bringing  with  him,  to  scatter  broadcast  all  over  this 
continent,  the  seeds  of  the  re\'olution  that  begat  and  ma- 
tured him.  The  Pilgrims  comprehended  the  just  limita- 
tions of  the  civil  power  almost  as  well  as  did  their  children 
who  enacted  the  drama  of  ''j6.  Indeed,  in  the  main,  the 
latter  revolution  was  an  embodiment  in  a  happier  form  of 
the  principles  struggled  for  almost  two  centuries  before, 
than  a  revolution  betokening  any  organic  change  in  the  sen- 
timents of  men.  It  was  a  revolution  in  which  the  commer- 
cial spirit  was  pre-eminent.  A  close  scrutiny  of  the  causes 
which  led  through  several  years,  from  step  to  step,  to  that 
rupture  between  the  colonies  and  the  mother  country, 
shows  us  that  it  was  the  jealous  spirit  of  trade  that  de- 
tected the  wrongs  inflicted  by  the  home  government,  and 
which  raised  the  bugle  cry,  "  to  arms,  to  arms,"  and  which 
cost  George  III.  the  brightest  jewel  in  his  crown.  The 
English  government  had  prohibited  the  colonies  from  man- 
ufacturing iron  or  wool,  and  thus  by  threads  of  parliament- 
ary parchment  sought  to  bind  down  the  sinewy  arm  of 
labor.  Jealousy  of  colonial  wealth  and  of  the  strength 
and  pride  it  begets,  threw  every  obstacle  in  its  way  that 
the  ingenuity  of  ministry  could  devise ;  and  finally,  to 
crown  the  climax  of  atrocities,  and  to  strangle  in  its  cradle 
the  genius  of  American  commerce,  were  passed  the  Bos- 
ton Port  Bill  and  the  Navigation  Act,  thus  by  a  single 
blow  annihilating  every  element  of  independence  as  a  com- 
mercial people.  Then  it  was  that  war  was  invited  to  sit  as 
arbiter  between  a  haughty  mother  and  her  injured  children. 
But  the  war  was  then  with  the  English  government,  rather 
than  with  the  people.  The  evidence  of  this  is  read  in  the 
feeling  which  pervaded  the  masses  of  the  mother  country 
at  the  very  moment  these  grievances  were  being  inflicted. 
Virginia  and  the  Carolinas  were  not  more  prompt  in 
petitioning  parliament  to  throw  off  the  restrictions  on  our 


INDEPENDENCE  DAY  AT  LOCKPORT.        57 

commerce,  than  were  the  trading  and  monetar)'  classes  in 
every  town  in  Great  Britain.  The  war  was  one  of  minis- 
try, who  well  knew  that  an  independent  commerce  and  a 
dependent  colonial  relation  could  not  long  exist  together. 

If  called  to  state  the  political  results  of  that  revolution, 
we  should  say  that  it  established  the  doctrines  of  Magna 
C/iarta,  in  relation  to  the  personal  rights  of  the  citizen. 
It  established,  and  for  the  first  time  in  the  known  world — 
which  of  itself  was  a  new  epoch  in  the  history  of  man — an 
unfettered  freedom  to  trade  and  to  commerce.  And  when 
building  a  temple  of  a  just  free  trade,  it  laid  the  corner- 
stone upon  the  only  foundation  on  which  the  pile  could 
rest — the  equality  of  all  the  natural  rights  of  man.  It 
abjured  forever  all  the  monopolies  of  trade,  all  exclusive- 
ness  of  commercial  privilege.  It  bade  man  everywhere  a 
God-speed  in  his  every  honest  monetary  enterprise.  It 
invited  him  to  open  the  rich  veins  of  the  earth,  to  impress 
the  mountain  streams,  the  billows  of  the  ocean,  all  the 
elements  of  nature,  indeed,  into  his  service.  Here  was 
the  principle  achieved  by  the  revolution. 

One  thing  further  was  wanting.  Man  might  acquire, 
but  license  make  a  prey  of  his  acquisitions.  Labor  might 
exhaust  its  ingenuity  in  erecting  monuments  of  taste,  of 
skill  or  of  profit,  and  the  spirit  of  plunder  claim  it  as  its 
own.  Revolution  had  not  completed  its  work  ;  it  had  es- 
tablished the  principle,  the  benefits  were  now  to  be  secured. 
How  to  secure  to  labor  its  acquisitions,  how  to  make  prop- 
erty, labor's  reward,  an  element  of  the  State,  and  still  pre- 
serve its  harmony  with  the  personal  rights  of  the  citizen, 
here  was  a  task  which  had  baffled  the  spirit  of  revolution 
since  the  world  began.  It  had  sought  this  end  in  the 
strong  arm  of  despotism,  but  power  had  begotten  pride, 
and  trampled  upon  the  rights  entrusted  it.  It  had  sought 
it  in  the  clemency  of  a  limited  monarchy.     But  if  one  gen- 


58  ADDRESSES  AND    MISCELLANIES. 

cration  had  been  fostered  by  a  good  king,  ten  had  been 
neglected  by  bad  ones.  It  had  sought  this  protecting 
aegis  in  a  splendid  oligarchy,  and  the  rights  of  labor  had 
been  forgotten  amid  the  revelry  of  the  court.  It  had 
sought  it  in  the  wild  tumults  of  an  uncultured  democracy, 
and  had  wept  over  the  wrecks  strewed  upon  its  waves  of 
faction  and  anarchy. 

But  if  we  now  see  an  experiment  trusting  much  to 
human  nature,  how  rich  were  the  elements  so  confided  in. 

A  popular  heart,  inspired  by  the  religious  sentiment,  a 
refinement  of  sentiment  and  delicacy  of  honor,  a  sturdy 
manliness  and  enlarged  intelligence  represented  in  every 
citizen,  however  humble  his  home,  which  was  sought  in 
vain  in  the  courts  of  Europe's  kings.  It  had  also  the 
conservative  element  ever  to  be  found  in  property,  in 
homes,  and  firesides,  and  domestic  altars.  Stout  in  the 
faith  that  these  were  elements  of  safety,  it  launched  upon 
their  bosom  the  experiment  of  a  republican  government. 

Revolution  here  sought  to  avoid  the  extremes  of  an 
arbitrary  government  in  the  hands  of  a  few,  and  the  as 
dangerous  extreme  of  a  pure  democracy,  which,  whenever 
or  wherever  born  into  the  world,  has  come  pregnant  with 
the  destruction  that  has  sooner  or  later  overwhelmed  it. 

Here,  then,  we  arrive  at  the  great  principles  established 
by  the  revolution — the  right  of  conscience,  and  the  right 
of  persons,  the  abolition  of  all  civil  hereditary  castes,  and 
of  all  restrictive  monopolies.  The  purpose  of  a  govern- 
ment was  with  the  founders  to  afford  the  amplest  security 
to  all  these  rights.  In  so  doing,  they  did  not  bow 
down  in  worship  of  idle  abstractions,  nor  did  they  consent 
to  sacrifice  practical  liberty  for  popular  theories.  Hence, 
at  that  early  period,  when  the  danger  which  has  since 
threatened  us  from  many  sources,  was  afar  off,  they  estab- 


INDEPENDENCE  DAY  AT  LOCKPORT.        59 

lished   a  government    eminently  conservative,   and    with 
elements  which  promised  duration  and  permanence. 

Although  it  was  to  be  one  of  and  for  the  people,  they 
sought  to  place  it  above  the  caprices  of  an  ever-changing 
popular  sentiment.  It  was  to  be  a  representative  govern- 
ment, but  preserving  their  consistency,  they  still  con- 
tended that  taxation  and  representation  should  go 
together.  They  contended  that  government  should  hover 
protectingly  over  every  citizen,  should  invite  his  enter- 
prise, foster  his  genius,  and  shield  him  from  wrong,  but 
the  right  to  control,  to  direct  its  machinery,  to  dispose  of 
its  revenues,  they  placed  in  hands  qualified  by  arbitrary, 
and  w^hat  they  regarded  wholesome,  rules  of  the  State. 
The  reader  of  the  history  of  the  constitutional  convention 
will  not  fail  to  discover  that  the  right  of  suffrage,  as  an 
absolute  right  of  the  citizen,  irrespective  of  his  other  rela- 
tions to  government,  and  above  the  control  which  the 
State  might  deem  proper  to  assume  from  motives  of  gen- 
eral policy,  was  contended  for  by  very  few  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  federal  convention.  On  the  contrary,  it  was 
generally  conceded  that  the  property  which  carried  on 
the  machinery  of  government  was  entitled  to  be  repre- 
sented in  the  councils  for  peace  and  for  w^ar.  Whether 
right  or  wrong  in  principle,  is  a  matter  of  private  judg- 
ment with  us,  their  posterity  ;  but  such  was  the  spirit 
of  that  revolution  as  embodied  in  the  sentiments  of  the 
master-leaders  of  that  age  of  unsurpassed  wisdom  and 
glory. 

They  rejected  the  modern  doctrine  of  the  infallibility 
of  mere  majorities.  I  say,  the  dogma  that  majorities  can 
do  no  wrong,  and  which  sometimes  couches  itself  in  the 
sounding  phrase,  "The  voice  of  the  people  is  the  voice 
of  God,"  was  not  an  accepted  doctrine  of  the  revolution- 
ary fathers.     The   histor)^-  of  the  world   is   crowded  with 


6o  ADDRESSES   AND   MISCELLANIES. 

the  crimes  of  individuals,  grouped  to^^^ethcr  in  superior 
numbers,  and  they  had  but  to  read  its  page  to  reject  a 
theory  so  false  and  dangerous.  They  saw  a  majority  in 
Rome  nailing  the  head  of  the  butchered  Cicero  over  the 
very  rostrum  where  yet  lingered  the  spirit  of  his  patriot- 
ism and  the  echoes  of  his  eloquence. 

They  saw  a  majority  ostracising  an  Aristides  from 
Athens,  because  he  was  a  just  man,  and  dooming  the  hero 
of  Marathon,  the  noblest  embodiment  of  Grecian  valor 
and  patriotism,  to  the  dungeon  and  to  chains. 

They  heard  swelling  up  through  the  shadowy  aisles  of 
eighteen  centuries,  and  still  echoing  around  the  broken 
walls  of  the  City  of  Fanes  and  Synagogues,  the  stormy 
voice  of  a  majority  crying  out,  "  Azvaj/  zvitJi  him,  aivay 
ivith  him,  not  this  man,  but  Barabbas  !  " 

On  this  subject  of  majorities,  allow  me  to  quote  from 
a  single  speech  in  the  federal  convention,  of  one  of  the 
ablest  and  purest  men  of  that  or  of  any  other  age,  a  man 
who  loved,  but  did  not  flatter  the  people,  a  man  who 
cherished  his  own  self-respect  above  all  earthly  dignities 
— I  mean  James  Madison.     He  says  : 

In  all  cases  where  a  majority  are  united  by  a  common  inter- 
est or  passion,  the  rights  of  the  minority  are  in  danger.  What 
motives  are  to  restrain  them  ?  A  prudent  regard  to  the  maxim, 
that  honesty  is  the  best  policy,  is  found  by  experience  to  be  as 
little  regarded  by  bodies  of  men  as  by  individuals.  Respect 
for  character  is  always  diminished  in  proportion  to  the  number 
among  whom  the  blame  or  praise  is  to  be  divided.  Conscience, 
the  only  remaining  tie,  is  known  to  be  inadequate  in  individu- 
als in  large  numbers ;  little  is  to  be  expected  from  it.  These 
observations  are  verified  by  the  histories  of  every  country, 
ancient  and  modern.  It  is  incumbent  on  us,  then,  to  frame  a 
republican  system  on  such  a  scale  and  in  such  a  form  as  will 
control  all  the  evils  which  have  been  experienced. 


INDEPENDENCE  DAY  AT  LOCKPORT.        6 1 

In  the  spirit  of  this  doctrine,  the  federal  constitution 
has  its  highest  value  in  those  provisions  which  look  to 
the  protection  of  minorities.  I  have  thus  briefly  traced 
the  progress  of  that  political  revolution  which,  beginning 
far  back  in  the  early  period  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race, 
achieved  its  crowning  victory  in  that  struggle  which  gave 
independent  nationality  to  the  English  Colonies. 

How  stupendous  the  results  from  so  doubtful  begin- 
nings! On  the  twenty-second  of  March,  1775,  Edmund 
Burke  made  his  immortal  speech  in  the  British  parliament, 
"Conciliation  with  the  Colonies."  And  after  having  pre- 
sented a  statistical  view  of  the  increase  of  wealth  and 
power  of  the  colonies  within  the  life  of  his  friend,  Lord 
Bathurst,  a  period  of  sixty-eight  years,  he  imagines  the 
angel  of  the  honorable  lord  lifting  to  his  infant  gaze  the 
curtain  of  the  future  to  be  embraced  within  his  own  life, 
unfolding  the  rising  glories  of  his  country  and  addressing 
him  in  the  language  of  faithful  prophecy : 

Young  man,  there  is  America,  which  at  this  day  serves  for 
little  more  than  to  amuse  you  with  stories  of  savage  men  and 
uncouth  manners ;  yet  shall,  before  you  taste  of  death,  show 
itself  equal  to  the  whole  of  that  commerce  which  now  attracts 
the  envy  of  the  world.  Whatever  England  has  been  growing 
to  by  a  progressive  increase  of  improvement,  brought  in  by 
varieties  of  people,  by  succession  of  civilizing  conquests  and 
civilizing  settlements  in  a  series  of  seventeen  hundred  years, 
you  shall  see  as  much  added  to  her  by  America  in  the  course 
of  a  single  life.  If  this  state  of  his  country  had  been  foretold 
to  him,  would  it  not  require  all  the  sanguine  credulity  of  youth 
and  all  the  fervid  glow  of  enthusiasm  to  make  him  believe  it  ? 
Fortunate  man,  he  has  lived  to  see  it!  Fortunate  indeed  if  he 
lives  to  see  nothing  that  shall  vary  the  prospect  and  cloud  the 
setting  of  his  day. 

If  such  raptures  were  occasioned  to  the  most  liberal 
and  enlightened  statesmen  of  England  over  the  progress 


62  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

of  the  colonics  for  the  sixty-eight  years  preceding  the 
American  Revokition,  how  overwhelming  would  have 
been  a  prophetic  vision  of  the  future  of  America,  from 
the  treaty  of  Jay  to  this  Eightieth  Anniversary  of  our 
independence  as  a  Nation.  Yet  a  single  life  compasses  it. 
Within  the  sound  of  my  voice  may  be  more  than  one 
whose  life  spans  this  wonderful  development.  Of  him, 
we  may  say  with  Burke,  "  fortunate  man  !  " 

Fellow-citizens,  let  us  contemplate  for  a  moment  the 
instrumentality  of  all  this  growth  and  progress.  What 
has  given  such  expansive  power  to  the  moral  and  politi- 
cal forces  of  this  government?  What  is  it  that  under 
God  has  preserved  us  from  the  disasters  of  civil  war  in 
the  midst  of  public  heats  and  sectional  strife  ?  What 
has  borne  the  flag  of  our  country  to  the  golden  shores 
of  the  Western  ocean,  where  commingle  its  emblematic 
stars  with  the  stars  of  heaven  as  they  are  reflected 
upon  the  calm  waters  of  the  Pacific  ?  What  is  it  that 
has  given  protection  to  that  flag,  and  commanded  for  it 
respect  on  whatever  sea  or  in  whatever  breeze  it  floats, 
environing  it  with  a  moral  power  for  protection  to  Amer- 
ican property  and  American  men  stronger  than  that  of 
armies  and  navies?  Why  has  Civilization  invoked  the 
Genius  of  our  government  as  its  peculiar  patron,  under 
whose  protection  it  has  carried  Christianity,  free  institu- 
tions, and  all  the  sweet  charities,  the  gentle  graces  and 
the  refined  humanities  which  characterize  the  best  phases 
of  a  Christian  age,  over  a  vast  portion  of  this  continent, 
binding  them  all  in  the  charmed  zone  of  the  Republic  ? 
What  is  that  in  spite  of  all  intestine  heats,  conflicting 
interests  and  burning  passions,  has  thus  far  kept  bound 
together  these  thirty-one  confederated  States,  securing  to 
each  the  individuality  of  interest  and  power  which  be- 
longs to  a  separate  nationality,  and  the  respect  and  secu- 


INDEPENDENCE  DAY  AT  LOCKPORT.        63 

rity  which  pertain  to  consoHdatcd  empire  ?  What  is  it 
that  permits  us  to  be  so  deHghtfully  assembled  here 
to-day,  instead  of  standing  guard  upon  the  outposts  of 
our  own  State,  protecting  it  against  the  incursions  of  hos- 
tile sov^creignties,  or  engaging,  it  may  be,  in  battle-con- 
flict with  brethren  and  kindred?  The  cause  is  to  be 
found  in  that  sacrifice  of  selfishness,  that  liberality  of 
concession,  that  act  of  justice  to  all  interests  however 
antagonistic,  itself  the  result  of  the  profoundest  study  of 
every  model  of  free  government  ever  tested  by  associated 
man — the  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  United  States. 

There  are  times,  fellow-citizens,  when  it  becomes  us  to 
go  to  the  source  of  our  blessings  and  consider  it  well. 

This  Union  cannot  survive  the  sentiment  of  loyalty 
which  honors  and  would  preserve  it.  The  offspring  of 
the  spirit  of  conciliation,  of  forbearance,  and  affection, 
it  cannot  exist  amid  hate  and  uncharitableness,  and 
struggles  for  sectional  power.  Power  attained  under 
such  influences  is  sure  to  be  exercised — such  is  human 
nature — to  fortify  itself,  and  to  crush  out  its  enemies. 
The  physical  power  of  the  government,  all  the  standing 
armies  of  the  world  cannot  preserve  this  Union  when 
mutual  sectional  hates  resolve  upon  its  destruction. 

Fellow-citizens,  there  are  some  sad  omens  in  the 
present  state  of  public  affairs  and  public  sentiment. 
There  is  a  dangerous  recklessness  of  opinion  and  action 
on  every  side  of  us  provoked  by  excesses  of  speech,  of 
action,  and  of  legislation.  The  sentiment  of  patriotism 
is  seemingly  growing  weaker,  and  affection  and  interest 
are  being  transferred  from  the  Federal  to  the  State 
organizations.  This  is  the  fatal  rock  on  which  other 
republics  have  wrecked,  and  which  now  threatens  us  with 
the  same  ruin.  In  an  age  so  intensely  commercial  as 
ours,  when  all  considerations  for  preserving  old  or  creating 


64  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

new  relations  cluster  around  interest,  lookinj^  to  results, 
how  much  it  will  cost  and  what  it  will  pay,  it  is  not  easy 
to  preserve  a  love  of  a  federal  government  if  the  several 
parts  of  which  it  is  composed  are  conflicting  in  interest, 
and  hostile  in  feeling.  The  several  State  governments 
come  nearest  to  the  citizen  of  the  respective  States.  His 
State  educates  his  children,  protects  his  property,  is  the 
source  of  municipal  and  organic  relations;  represents  his 
public  charities,  and  if  it  be  an  old  State,  rich  and 
powerful,  the  citizen  easily  learns  to  feel  that  it  is  an 
empire  of  itself,  and  to  look  with  as  much  jealousy  upon 
the  encroachment  of  sister  States,  and  probably  more,  as 
if  the  federal  tie  did  not  exist.  This  was  manifest  under 
the  confederation,  when  the  different  States  were  in  con- 
stant collision  with  each  other,  arising  from  disputed 
rights  and  supposed  aggressions. 

The  struggle  everywhere  among  federal  States  is  for 
political  power,  for  influence  and  consideration  in  all  the 
departments  of  rule,  and  when  there  are  conflicting 
interests,  the  struggle  will  be  bitter  in  proportion  to  the 
magnitude  of  the  stake.  The  chief  barrier  to  the  forma- 
tion of  the  federal  constitution  is  the  prime  cause  of  all 
our  present  evils — jealousy  of  the  ascendency  of  one 
interest  in  the  national  administration  and  counsels  over 
another  interest,  and  that  stimulated  by  the  consciousness 
that  no  State  is  so  pitiably  poor  as  the  State  which 
depends  for  justice  upon  the  magnanimity  of  its  superiors. 
It  was  this  jealousy  which  induced  two  of  the  three 
delegates  of  the  State  of  New  York  to  leave  the  conven- 
tion which  formed  the  constitution,  because  the  larger 
States  insisted  upon  making  the  representation  in  the 
senate  a  representation  of  persons  instead  of  States, 
which  it  was  justly  claimed  would  make  the  whole  thir- 


INDEPENDENCE  DAY  AT  LOCKPORT.        65 

teen  entirely  dependent  on  the  will  or  caprice  of  three  or 
four  of  the  largest  States. 

Massachusetts  and  Virginia,  until  compelled  to  abandon 
the  position,  acted  in  concert  for  this  unjust  principle,  for 
they  were  both  numerically  strong,  and  both,  true  repre- 
sentatives of  human  nature,  sought  to  concentrate  in 
themselves  the  controlling  power  of  the  government. 

Says  Luther  Martin,  a  delegate  to  the  convention  from 
Maryland,  in  his  letter  addressed  to  the  legislature  of 
that  State,  in  relation  to  the  proceedings  of  the  conven- 
tion, while  speaking  of  the  action  of  the  delegates  from 
those  two  States : 

In  everything  that  tended  to  give  the  largest  States  power 
over  the  smaller^  Mr.  Mason  could  not  forget  he  belonged  to 
the  ancient  dominion,  nor  could  Mr.  Gerry  forget  that  he 
represented  Massachusetts ;  that  part  of  the  system  which 
tended  to  give  those  States  power  over  the  others  met  with 
their  perfect  approbation. 

Their  interests  are  now  relatively  very  different.  Mas- 
sachusetts now  struggles  to  maintain  her  diminished 
political  power,  and  Virginia  contends  as  if  for  life  to 
preserve  undiminished  the  federal  power  of  that  interest 
which  commands  all  her  sympathies,  social,  pecuniary 
and  political. 

It  is  still  the  same  old  contest  for  supremacy,  and  that 
not  so  much  to  oppress  others  as  to  prevent  others  from 
oppressing  them. 

The  free  interest  and  the  slave  interest  have  ever  since 
the  formation  of  the  government  been  struggling  to  pre- 
vent, each  the  other,  from  securing  a  political  ascendency 
which  might  imperil  the  relative  strength  of  their  respect- 
ive interests. 

The  conflict,  both  in  its  aggressive  and  defensive  feat- 
ures, is    to    be  traced    to   principles  which  are  found    in 


66  ADDRESSES   AND   MISCELLANIES. 

universal  man.  Fifteen  States  of  this  Union  find  them- 
selves deriving  their  political  consideration  and  their 
wealth  from  an  institution  which  is  without  the  sym- 
pathies of  the  civilized  world.  They  know  it  has  within 
it  elements  of  weakness  and  decline,  both  physical  and 
political.  This  is  to  be  strengthened  by  enlarging  its 
sphere,  and  preserving  its  practical  equality  by  maintain- 
ing its  ratio  of  representation  in  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States.  Sixteen  States  of  this  Union  naturally  are 
jealous  of  this  increase  of  power,  and  of  whatever  shall 
give  it  a  controlling  ascendency. 

Where  is  this  to  end  ?  He  who  holds  the  nations  in 
the  hollow  of  His  hand,  only  knows.  But  great  as  may 
be  the  evils  incident  to  our  system,  how  beneficent,  on  the 
whole,  has  it  proved  to  us  all !  What  State  is  not  pros- 
perous? What  home  is  not  happy?  What  conscience 
is  not  free  ?  When  before  did  the  sun  shine  upon  a 
nation  of  twenty-five  millions  so  richly  enjoying  all  the 
blessings  of  free  government,  of  Christian  institutions,  of 
educational  privilege?  A  united  people,  we  are  respected, 
powerful.  Divided,  we  are  weak ;  thirty-one  rival  States, 
with  elements  of  discord  which  would  soon  familiarize  us 
with  standing  armies,  with  border  forays,  contemptible 
for  our  weakness,  the  easy  victims  of  ambitious  power. 

Fellow-citizens,  in  view  of  a  sacred  past,  of  an  unhappy 
present  and  an  uncertain  future,  let  us  recur  to  the  source 
of  all  our  blessings  and  consider  it  well.  Let  us  drink 
deep  of  the  spirit  of  Washington  ;  let  us  heed  his  coun- 
sels, and  imitate  his  exalted  patriotism.  Let  us  perform 
a  fresh  lustration  before  the  holiest  altars  of  Country, 
renewing  our  vows  of  fidelity  to  the  Constitution  and  the 
Union,  resolving  that, 

"  Unimpaired  to  our  children,  these  rights  shall  descend, 
We  will  live  to  preserve  them  and  die  to  defend." 


THE   FEDERAL  JUDICIARY.  6/ 


THE    FEDERAL    JUDICIARY. 

Extract   from   an   Oration    delivered    at    Warsaw,  New    York, 
July   4,  1857. 


This  brings  me  to  an  element  in  our  government,  of 
which  I  would  briefly  speak.  I  mean  the  judiciary.  Well 
did  Mr.  Webster  argue  in  his  controversy  with  South 
Carolina  nullification,  that  by  the  provision  of  the  con- 
stitution, "  that  it  and  the  laws  of  the  United  States, 
made  in  pursuance  thereof,  shall  be  the  supreme  law  of 
the  land,"  and  the  further  provision  that  "  the  judicial 
power  shall  extend  to  all  cases  arising  under  the  constitu- 
tion and  laws  of  the  United  States,"  we  had  a  constitution 
and  a  government.  There  was  the  basis  of  confidence, 
because  there  was  power  of  ultimate  decision.  There 
could  be  no  room  for  anarchy,  for  there  was  an  authority 
supreme,  emanating  from  the  sovereign  will,  before  whose 
behest  passion  subsides,  and  conflicting  opinions  become 
harmless  abstractions. 

I  have  faith  in  this  government  so  long  as  the  American 
people  are  loyal  to  this  element  of  the  constitution.  It 
there  be  danger  anywhere,  it  lies  in  this  direction.  The 
centrifugal  forces  in  our  government  are  to  be  found  in 
the  State  sovereignties,  whose  tendency  through  natural 
jealousy,  as  well  as  love  of  power,  is  to  break  away  from 
their  positions  in  the  federal  orbit ;  ambitious  to  be  sun 
and  moon  and  constellations,  in  an   independent  system 


68  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

of  State  sovereignty.  The  federal  judiciary  is  the  power 
of  moral  attraction  as  positive  as  that  material  attraction 
which  binds  this  earth  in  its  orbit,  which  must  hold  these 
States,  that  otherwise  would  rush  madly  from  their 
spheres,  in  their  just  positions,  in  this  system  of  political 
harmonies. 

But,  it  may  be  said,  the  judiciary  may  err  through  pas- 
sion or  prejudice,  or  sympathy,  especially  on  political 
questions  which  divide  public  sentiment  and  enlist  the 
very  fury  of  popular  passion.  To  this  I  would  say,  there 
is  no  good  in  human  institutions,  which  is  an  unmingled 
good.  There  can  be  no  government  without  power,  and 
power  in  the  hands  of  fallible  men  ever  tends  to  abuse, 
and  all  the  constitutions,  and  bills  of  rights,  and  great 
charts  of  human  liberty,  ever  won  on  fields  of  battle,  or 
perfected  in  popular  assemblies  or  parliaments,  are  not 
always  able  to  prevent  that  abuse,  and  secure  exact  jus- 
tice to  individuals  and  parties.  But  I  say  no  grievance, 
save  that  which  springs  from  corruption,  and  which  can 
be  cured  only  by  that  terrible,  but  sometimes  necessary 
remedy — revolution,  is  so  insufferable  as  anarchy,  as  a 
people  without  law,  as  a  government  demoralized,  stripped 
of  all  power  to  enforce  its  authority,  the  wretched  victim 
of  contending  factions. 

But  it  is  sometimes  said  that  judges  lay  aside  the 
ermine  to  assume  the  defiled  attire  of  politicians,  and  the 
decisions  of  the  judiciary  are  political  and  unentitled  to 
respect.  Let  us  be  just;  let  us  to-day  do  justice  to 
human  nature.  Under  our  institutions  all  men,  learned 
and  unlearned,  private  and  official,  have  positive  opinions 
upon  every  public  question.  Where  their  own  direct 
interests  are  involved,  those  opinions  are  most  likely  to 
be  on  the  side  of  their  interests.  When  the  question  is 
abstract,   those  opinions  are  formed  by  associations,  by 


THE   FEDERAL   JUDICIARY.  69 

individual  idiosyncracies,  and  often  by  that  outside  press- 
ure of  partisan  relations  which  we  all  feel,  and  which 
none  of  us  find  it  easy  to  resist.  Men  who  by  profes- 
sional pre-eminence  and  political  relations  are  summoned 
to  the  judiciary,  like  ourselves,  have  been  brought  up  in 
a  certain  school  of  opinions  which,  upon  certain  questions, 
have  moulded  all  their  habits  of  thought.  It  is  easy  to 
see  how  a  Virginia  strict  constructionist  could  find  no 
constitutional  power  in  congress  to  prosecute  internal 
improvements,  while  it  is  just  as  easy  to  see  how  the 
liberal  mind  of  a  Clay,  which  looked  upon  government  as 
the  depository  of  a  great  trust  for  the  welfare  of  a  people, 
and  the  constitution,  not  as  of  narrow  powers  defined  as 
accurately  as  the  relations  of  angles  in  a  triangle,  but  as 
an  instrument  of  adaptedness  to  exigencies  of  an  expan- 
sive energy,  of  a  power  commensurate  with  the  wants  of 
a  great  commonwealth  as  time  should  develop  them, 
should  regard  acts  of  national  beneficence  to  be  clearly 
constitutional.  My  idea  finds  its  illustration  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  New  York  judiciary.  One  of  the  former 
leading  parties  in  this  State  passed  a  law  anticipating  the 
canal  revenues.  The  opposing  party  was  represented  in 
a  majority  of  the  court  of  last  resort,  and,  to  the  over- 
throw of  a  great  policy,  declared  the  enactment  uncon- 
stitutional. The  disappointed  party  was,  at  first,  disposed 
to  charge  this  decision  to  partizanship,  but  a  thoughtful 
observer  could  recognize  in  the  reasoning  of  the  opponents 
of  the  law%  views  of  constitutional  powers  in  harmony 
with  the  political  thought  of  their  whole  lives. 

Our  political  opinions  become  a  part  of  ourselves. 
Conservatism  and  radicalism  are  both  honest  and  earnest 
elements,  and  become  a  part  of  our  moral  identities. 

One  other  thought  in  this  connection.  Time  is  the 
corrector  of  even  judicial   errors,  at  least  of  the  results  of 


70  ADDRESSES  AND   MISCELLANIES. 

those  errors.  There  is  such  a  thing  as  popular  passion 
that  flows  like  a  devastating  flood,  and  then  ebbs  away 
into  the  dead  sea  of  a  stagnant  thought.  From  this 
clement  I  hope  little  of  good,  but  there  is  a  reflective, 
sound  public  sentiment,  the  opinion  of  an  age  and  a 
people,  not  spasmodic,  nor  passionate,  but  reasonable, 
calm,  determined.  Its  movements  are  healthful  as  the 
tides  of  the  sea,  and,  like  them,  irresistible.  This  senti- 
ment will,  in  ways  that  cannot  jeopardize  the  peace  of 
society,  incorporate  itself  in  institutions  and  policies,  and 
in  every  department  of  government  work  its  healthful 
revolution.  The  very  idea  of  a  free  government,  is  a 
government  that  reflects  the  fixed  opinions  and  the  moral 
sense  of  its  people. 

To  this  extent  I  am  a  believer  in  a  progressive  consti- 
tution. The  beauty  of  the  English  constitution  is  its 
capacity  to  adapt  itself  to  the  progressive  thought  and  to 
the  constantly  developing  wants  of  the  English  people. 
Ours  is  a  written  constitution,  and  in  its  distribution  of 
power  among  the  several  branches  of  the  government, 
and  in  the  main,  in  its  grants  of  power  to  the  legislative 
department,  is  fixed  and  permanent.  But  in  its  moral 
bearings  it  has  an  expansive  energy  which  recognizes  the 
law  of  progress  and  adapts  itself  to  a  degree,  not  to  the 
passion,  but  to  the  matured  convictions  of  a  given  era. 
To  the  law  of  progress  and  to  this  force  of  opinion,  the 
judiciary  and  administration  must  bow.  This  is  the  law 
of  harmony  in  a  free  StatC;  and  the  basis  of  hopeful  con- 
fidence in  the  future. 


AGRICULTURE.  yi 


AGRICULTURE. 

Address  delivered  before  the  Erie  County  Agricultural  Society, 
September  29,  1858. 


Gentlemen  of  the  Society: 

Yesterday  your  president  informed  me  that  he  had 
sought  the  State  over  for  a  prophet  for  this  occasion,  and 
found  one,  as  he  supposed,  in  my  friend,  the  Hon.  A.  B. 
Dickinson,  distinguished  no  less  as  a  man  than  as  a  most 
intelhgent  agriculturist.  But  at  the  eleventh  hour  that 
resource  had  failed,  and  he  requested  me,  not  to  fill  the 
place  of  your  expected  orator,  but  to  occupy  a  part  of  his 
time,  that  the  form  of  the  programme  might  not  fail. 
You  will  expect  my  remarks  to  be  of  a  general  and 
desultory  character. 

There  may  be,  here  and  there,  some  dreamer,  who,  like 
Rousseau,  would  contend  that  uncivilized  man  is  his  most 
perfect  condition,  but  the  common  sense  of  the  world 
agrees  that  he  best  preserves  the  image  of  his  Maker,  who 
best  cultivates  his  nature  and  faculties,  and  that  that  gov- 
ernment and  that  state  of  society  are  the  most  beneficent, 
where  population  is  best  developed,  where  labor  is  the 
most  respected  and  best  rewarded,  where  exists  the 
highest  standard  of  physical  comfort.  In  the  attainment 
of  these  results,  land,  labor  and  capital,  bear  most  impor- 
tant relations.  Indeed,  they  all  are  inseparable  from  a 
state  of  society  a  single  degree  removed  from  absolute 
barbarism.  And  when  we  contemplate  their  relations  in 
the  higher  developments  of   national  life,  we  find   them 


72  ADDRESSES   AND   MISCELLANIES. 

entircl)'  intcr-dcpcndcnt  upon  each  other,  and  most  bene- 
ficent when  they  arc  among  themselves  most  harmonious. 
And  here  is  a  thought  I  would  impress  in  relation  to 
wages,  which  to  large  masses  of  mankind  is  the  means  of 
subsistence  and  comfort.  Extreme  low  wages  for  labor, 
such  as  exists  among  many  of  the  over-populated  coun- 
tries of  Europe,  and  such  as  sometimes  exists  in  this 
country,  particularly  the  wages  of  poor  females  in  our 
large  cities,  is  one  of  the  most  depressing  causes  of  social 
and  moral  degradation.  And  wherever  capital  conspires 
to  impress  the  sinews  and  brains  of  men  or  women  into 
its  service  without  adequate  compensation,  fastening  itself 
upon  the  very  heart  of  industry,  to  suck  out  all  its  juices, 
and  then  throw  it  away  as  a  useless  thing,  it  abuses  one 
of  the  most  sacred  trusts  committed  to  man.  Capital 
should  never  forget  that  it  has  moral  and  social  obliga- 
tions. It  is  the  order  of  Providence,  and  ever  will  be,  that 
money  shall  aggregate  in  the  hands  of  the  comparatively 
few.  When  that  capital  is  under  the  control  of  a  human 
heart  which  realizes  the  value  of  man  as  man,  and  his 
right  somewhere  to  earn  himself  a  home  and  comfort  and 
education,  and  social  advantage,  and  appreciates  the  re- 
ciprocal duties  of  labor  and  the  money  that  employs  it, 
how  beneficent  an  agency  it  is.  How  light  is  the  heart  of 
labor  in  its  service  ;  how  like  a  perennial  fountain  of  living 
waters,  a  never-failing  joy  in  the  midst  of  any  people.  But 
that  capital  which  knows  nothing  but  its  own  selfish  am- 
bition— which  says,  with  its  prototypes  of  the  olden  time. 

When  will  the  new  moon  be  gone,  that  we  may  sell  corn  ? 
and  the  Sabbath,  that  we  may  set  forth  wheat,  making  the 
ephah  small  and  the  shekel  great,  and  falsifying  the  balances  by 
deceit.'  That  we  may  buy  the  poor  for  silver  and  the  needy 
for  a  pair  of  shoes ;  yea,  and  sell  the  refuse  of  the  wheat  ? — 

it  is  in  all  times  and  places  a  scourge,  and  not  a  blessing. 


AGRICULTURE.  73 

The  sentiment  sometimes  expressed  that  capital  is  the 
natural  cnemj'  of  labor  is  a  heresy  and  a  crime.  Their 
natural  relations  are  those  of  peace,  and  harmony,  and 
good  will.  It  is  only  when  money  is  oppressively  exer- 
cised that  they  arc  otherwise.  All  the  gigantic  enterprises 
undertaken  by  money  become  the  direct  means  of  subsis- 
tence for  the  myriad  hands  it  calls  into  service.  It  covers 
the  sea  with  commerce-bearing  keels,  it  rears  the  factory, 
builds  the  railroads,  spans  the  ocean  with  the  electric  tele- 
graph, and  in  a  thousand  waj's  opens  up  to  industry  the 
means  of  independent  subsistence.  Even  the  very  luxu- 
ries in  which  capital  is  pleased  to  indulge,  feed  hundreds 
of  thousands  who  would  otherwise  want  bread.  I  never 
see  laid  the  foundation  of  a  costly  mansion  by  a  pro- 
prietor who  can  afford  it,  but  instead  of  criticizing  his 
extravagance,  1  think  of  the  labor  his  money  employs, 
and  am  more  than  content  with  his  luxury,  as  it  gives 
bread  and  home  to  those  dependent  upon  their  industry. 

There  is  a  relation  which  land  sometimes  bears,  per- 
fectly legitimate,  but  which  is  often  the  bane  of  agricul- 
tural life.  I  mean  the  relation  of  a  borrower.  The  great 
passion  of  our  farming  interests  has  been,  accumulation 
of  more  acres.  To  own  all  that  adjoins  him  is  rather  a 
serious  passion  than  a  joke,  with  many  a  man.  Then 
comes  debt,  and  in  its  train  that  great  absorbent  of  the 
fruits  of  industry,  certain  as  the  sun  in  its  rising,  and 
remorseless  as  the  grave — interest.  Interest  is  often  to 
a  good  competency  what  slow  poison  is  to  the  body. 
Except  in  new  countries  where  land  is  very  cheap,  very 
productive,  and  its  market  reliable,  there  is  very  little 
land  that  can  afford  the  relation,  to  a  considerable  extent, 
of  a  debtor  to  capital. 

A  mortgage  seems  to  be  a  very  harmless  thing — a  little 
piece  of  parchment,  and  a  seal  and  an  autograph,  but  it 


74  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

cats  like  a  canker-worm,  it  grapples  with  firm  hand  every 
square  inch  of  the  broad  acres  it  covers,  its  exactions  grow 
with  the  liours,  and  often  does  the  proprietor,  whose 
sweat  has  for  years  mingled  with  that  encumbered  soil, 
whose  very  soul  has  been  wedded  to  it  as  a  part  of  himself, 
see  the  home  of  his  wife  and  children  pass  under  the  forms 
of  law,  a  sacrifice  upon  the  altar  of  interest,  and  that  altar 
one  of  his  own  erecting. 

This  brings  me  to  another  reflection.  It  is  this,  that 
very  large  landed  estates  are  not  desirable,  either  upon 
public  or  private  considerations.  I  do  not  mean  specula- 
tive estates,  the  greatest  moneyed  curse  that  now  afflicts 
this  country.  For  I  hesitate  not  to  say  that  the  policy 
which  has  always  existed  under  our  government,  of  permit- 
ting by  indirection,  if  not  by  direction,  the  accumulation 
of  large  bodies  of  the  public  lands  in  the  hands  of  a 
speculating  few,  who  buy  at  a  small  price,  and  sell  out  to 
the  laborer  and  the  agriculturist,  at  large  prices,  is  the 
greatest  social  wrong  of  which  the  government  is  guilty. 
The  public  lands,  I  hold,  are  a  great  trust  for  the  labor  of 
the  country.  They  should  be  entered  only  as  they  are 
wanted  by  emigration,  and  sold  by  government  only  as 
they  are  demanded  for  legitimate  purposes  of  tillage 
and  settlement.  But  to  return  from  this  episode  to 
my  thoughts  about  large  landed  estates  for  purposes  of 
cultivation. 

They  are  not  necessary  for  profitable  tillage.  The 
general  rule  is,  that  upon  a  very  large  farm  it  is  super- 
ficially cultivated.  Science,  as  related  to  agriculture,  has 
demonstrated  that  a  single  acre,  well  cultivated,  pays  a 
better  interest  than  two  superficially  so.  A  man  with  a 
hundred  acres  under  the  best  cultivation,  will  often  out- 
strip his  neighbor  of  hundreds  of  acres  who  is  ambitious 
of  adding  farm  to  farm   by  that   most  deceptive   tie  of 


AGRICULTURE.  75 

which  I  have  spoken — debt.  My  idea  of  a  well-tilled  acre 
is,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  mostly  derived  from  books  ;  but 
science  is  at  fault,  or,  owin^  to  the  facility  and  passion 
for  large  farms,  we  hardly  approximate  to  a  development 
of  the  full  capacity  of  our  cultivated  lands. 

It  is  a  matter  of  congratulation  that  the  State  which 
has  been  most  liberal  in  its  endowment  of  classical  in- 
stitutions— \\'hich,  valuable  as  they  are,  and  much  as  they 
have  done  to  advance  liberal  learning,  have  failed  to  meet 
the  wants  of  the  age  in  connection  with  the  practical  arts 
and  sciences — has  at  length  awakened  to  the  importance 
of  scientific  agriculture,  and  has  become  the  patron  and 
founder  of  institutions  which  teach  tillage  as  a  science. 

There  is  another  consideration  for  moderate  farms,  of 
a  public  character.  Wherever  the  land  of  an  agricultural 
State  is  in  the  hands  of  a  few,  there,  though  the  few  may 
be  rich,  the  tenantry  and  the  State  will  be  poor. 

And  here,  allow  me  a  single  word  on  the  subject  of 
land  tenantry.  On  public  considerations,  a  tenantry  in  a 
State  where  liberal  institutions  prevail,  is  a  very  undesir- 
able relation.  Having  no  permanent  interest  in  the  soil, 
the  only  care  of  the  tenant  is  to  make  the  most  out  of 
the  current  time,  with  the  least  possible  expense  for 
general  improvement.  Landlordism  does  little  by  way 
of  adornment,  and  generally,  in  this  country,  where  it 
prevails,  we  look  in  vain  for  the  tasteful  farmhouse,  for 
commodious  out-houses,  for  the  lawn,  the  flower  garden, 
and  all  those  beautiful  adjuncts  to  rural  homes  which  are 
to  be  found  only  where  interest  and  affection  prompt  to 
this  graceful  culture.  If  you  see  a  farm  running  to  decay, 
its  tenements  sadly  out  of  repair,  and  a  general  appear- 
ance of  unthrift,  can  you  not  safely  guess  that  its  occu- 
pant is  a  tenant  ?  The  present  enlightened  Emperor  of 
Russia,  who  seems  fully  devoted  to  the  great  mission  of 


76  addrp:sses  and  miscellanies. 

cniancipciting  his  people  from  all  the  oppressions  of 
ancestral  law,  shows  his  appreciation  of  the  elevating 
influence  of  land  proprietorship,  by  not  only  emancipating 
his  million  serfs,  but  by  conferring  upon  them  the  lands 
they  have  tilled. 

But  to  return  to  my  thought  in  relation  to  very  large 
landed  estates,  that,  on  public  considerations,  they  are  not 
desirable.  The  strength  of  a  free  State  is  its  middle 
class.  I  mean  by  this  that  central  strata  of  society  which 
lies  between  the  very  rich  and  the  poor  serving-class.  Of 
this  middle  class,  the  moderate  landed  proprietors,  such 
as  for  the  most  part  cultivate  and  own  the  lands  in  our 
northern  States,  are  the  chief  representatives.  The  effect 
of  very  large  landed  estates  is  to  expel  from  the  State 
this  middle  class,  leaving  in  it  only  the  rich  few,  and  the 
poor  many,  who,  whatever  name  you  may  bestow  upon 
them — freemen,  yeomen  or  sovereigns — are,  as  a  general 
'rule,  subordinated  to  the  opinions  and  will  of  the  capital 
they  serve.  I  would  say  that,  together,  they  constituted 
the  upper  and  the  nether  mill-stone,  and  that  between 
them  the  State  is  ground  to  powder. 

A  few  days  since,  I  saw  an  advertisement  of  the  sale 
of  a  large  estate  in  England,  and  one  of  the  inducements 
to  purchase  was  this :  "  Connected  with  it  is  a  political 
influence  over  twelve  hundred  honest  voters  !  "  It  might 
be  unblushing  impudence  thus  to  proclaim  the  servility 
of  this  body  of  tenants,  but  it  is  the  well  known  condition 
of  great  bodies  of  English  tenantry. 

We  may  talk  of  education,  intelligence,  human  pro- 
gress, and  all  the  popular  ideas  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
but  much  as  I  value  them,  I  would  give  more  for  a  well- 
tilled  and  a  well-appointed  farm,  and  that  feeling  of  a 
positive  stake  in  the  institutions  of  society,  and  of  per- 
sonal independence  which  that  relation  creates,  than  for 


AGRICULTURE.  -JJ 

all  the  metaph)'sics  and  ologies  of  the  schools,  as  the 
basis  of  loyal  citizenship. 

I  mean  by  this,  that  that  State  is  richer  in  its  defenses 
which  has  enlisted  the  interests  of  its  citizens  on  the  side 
of  stability  and  law,  than  the  State  which,  neglectful  of 
this  alliance,  relies  only  upon  educating  the  people  into  a 
mere  theory  of  obedience. 

That  such  is  the  natural  result  of  very  large  landed 
estates,  thereby  weakening  the  State,  I  had  occasion  to 
observe  in  one  of  the  northern  of  the  southern  States, 
when  visiting  a  portion  of  it,  which  for  richness  of  soil, 
for  its  high  cultivation,  for  its  boundless  meadows  pas- 
turing the  finest  stock  in  the  world,  for  luxurious  homes, 
where  art  and  nature  vie  with  each  other  to  render  them 
attractive,  for  noble,  generous  and  brave-hearted  men, 
and  for  beautiful  and  gifted  women,  I  doubt  whether  it  is 
surpassed  in  the  world. 

But  while  such  is  the  general  character  of  the  large 
landed  proprietor,  his  own  family  is  often  found  to  com- 
prise nearly  the  entire  white  population  upon  two  or  three 
thousand  acres  of  land.  The  residue  are  slaves,  who, 
however  comfortable  may  be  their  physical  condition,  are 
but  slaves,  and  add  no  strength  to  the  State,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  are  an  element  of  weakness. 

I  made  inquiry  of  a  large  land  proprietor  if  this  were 
always  so,  and  he  assured  me  that  his  own  plantation, 
now  of  near  three  thousand  acres,  had  once  been  occupied 
by,  and  had  fed,  at  least  one  hundred  whites.  Where 
are  they  now,  you  ask  ?  Capital,  always  ambitious  of 
enlarging  its  landed  possessions,  when  that  is  its  line  of 
investment,  had  purchased  out  from  time  to  time  the 
smaller  proprietors,  and  these  had  betaken  themselves  to 
the  new  States  and  Territories.  Whatever  might  be  their 
individual  sain,  the  State  was  the  loser.     She  sained  no 


78  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

land  aiul  lost  men.  She  "gained  a  landed  aristocrac)', 
with  all  its  elements  of  natural  weakness  and  decax',  and 
lost  the  vigor,  the  energy  and  the  continually  increasing 
power  of  a  great  middle  class.  The  decadence  of  a  State 
under  such  a  policy  is  a  mere  question  of  time.  For 
where  this  policy  prevails,  there  is  no  social  sympathy 
between  the  ownership  of  the  land  and  the  labor  that 
tills  it.  This  at  once  degrades  labor,  divides  the  State 
between  the  rich  and  poor,  luxury  and  indolence  are  left 
free  to  demoralize  the  governing  class,  and  the  superior 
elements  of  the  State  whose  basis  must  be  men,  of  course 
decays.  There  can  be  no  healthy  national  growth  or 
life  when  labor  is  not  both  honorable  and  honored.  An 
aristocracy  of  wealth  wrung  from  the  toil  of  the  enslaved 
masses,  may,  for  a  period,  afford  a  seeming  splendor  to  a 
State,  but  it  has  no  enduring  basis.  The  primal  basis  of 
all  individual  growth  and  of  all  permanent  strength  of 
empire,  the  first  source  of  all  true  development,  both 
spiritual  and  material,  is  labor.  It  is  the  great  law  of 
our  being,  the  normal  condition  of  man.  I  think  as 
little  of  his  judgment  as  of  his  theology,  who  has  settled 
down  in  the  conviction  that  work  is  punishment  for 
transgression. 

"  Replenish  the  earth  and  subdue  it."  Such  was  the 
first  command  from  God  to  created  man.  Before  the 
shadows  of  a  moral  or  a  physical  death  had  fallen  upon 
the  father  of  our  race,  this  great  mission  of  labor,  of 
development,  of  conquest,  was  entrusted  to  our  humanity. 
Whether  in  Paradise,  pure  as  when  he  came  forth  from 
the  hand  of  his  Maker,  or  when  driven  from  those  blissful 
bowers  to  seek  a  home  upon  the  bosom  of  the  earth, 
man,  by  divine  institution,  was  wedded  to  toil.  He  must 
gather  and  press  its  grape  who  would  drink  the  wine  of 
life.     The  world  has  its  harmonies,  but  they  are  not  re- 


AGRICULTURE.  79 

sponsive  save  to  the  touch  of  earnest,  self-sacrificing 
activity. 

Idleness  is  the  vice  of  individual  life,  and  wherever  it  is 
a  national  habit  its  tendency  is  to  a  low  morality  and  a 
low  civilization.  There  is  no  sphere  for  industry  so  wide 
and  at  the  same  time  so  pure  in  its  relations  as  agricul- 
ture, and  if  life  be  viewed  in  its  proper  aspect,  there  is  no 
pursuit  so  inviting.  It  has  not  the  high  excitement  of 
commerce,  the  feverish  stimulus  or  the  sudden  wealth  of 
speculation.  Neither  has  it  their  sudden  reverses  and 
their  heart-crushing  disappointments. 

Multitudes  in  our  day  are  making  a  great  mistake, 
fellow-citizens.  They  have  the  false  idea  that  happiness 
can  be  more  certainly  secured  in  our  crowded  cities,  and 
in  mere  speculative  pursuits,  than  in  the  quiet  industry  of 
the  farm.  The  profession  of  living  by  wits,  which  is  no 
more  nor  less  than  living  by  speculation,  and  by  occupa- 
tions which  are  utterly  valueless  to  the  public,  counts  its 
tens  of  thousands.  It  supplies  the  whole  race  of  mere  spec- 
ulators, whose  life  is  a  game  with  fortune,  and  in  which 
nine  out  of  ten,  in  the  long  run,  are  losers,  their  lives  often 
closing  amid  disappointment  and  beggary,  and  not  unfre- 
quently  dishonesty  and  crime.  The  crisis  of  the  past 
year,  which  has  toppled  down  so  many  supposed  fortunes 
and  developed  so  much  fraud  and  peculation  in  high 
places,  has  been  accounted  for  in  many  ways.  I  would 
partially  account  for  it  in  a  word,  "  Haste  to  be  rich  with- 
out adequate  labor."  How  many  sons  of  agriculture, 
discontent  with  the  quiet  life  and  the  slow  acquisition  of 
their  fathers,  have  fled  to  the  large  cities,  become  ambi- 
tious of  the  social  pageantry  which  money  and  equipage 
affords,  have  plunged  into  rash  adventures,  floundered 
through  debt,  and  in  that  morass  have  been  tempted  to 
peculation  and  other  infidelity  to  their  trusts,  and  at  last 


8o  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

awaked  to  mined  fortunes  and  to  ruined  fame.  Even  whole 
States  are  sei/.ed  by  tliis  fren/.y  to  be  rich  witliout  labor. 
It  was  my  fortune  to  visit  one  of  our  very  new  States  not 
many  months  since,  and  of  the  scores  of  men  I  saw,  I 
hardly  saw  one  who  had  any  idea  of  accumulating  prop- 
erty, except  upon  the  speculation  basis  A  State  peculiarly 
favorable  to  agriculture,  its  sections  and  townships  had 
been  mapped  into  cities,  and  you  would  suppose  its  whole 
domain  was  to  be  devoted  to  marts  of  trade  and  harbors 
for  commerce.  As  a  burlesque  upon  the  mad  spirit  that 
reigned,  a  member  of  its  legislature  proposed  the  passage 
of  a  resolution  recommending  each  township  to  devote  at 
least  one-quarter  section  to  agricultural  purposes ! 

Baneful  as  is  this  spirit  of  gambling  in  lands,  the  gov- 
ernment is  largely  responsible  for  it.  The  practice  of 
allowing  capital  to  monopolize  such  large  bodies  of  choice 
lands  begets  the  fever  of  speculation,  and  the  country 
suffers  from  its  ravages.  "  In  the  sweat  of  thy  face  shalt 
thou  eat  thy  bread,"  is  the  irrevocable  law  under  which 
our  common  humanity  has  lived  for  six  thousand  years, 
and  all  our  vain  aspirations  and  petty  endeavors  to  circum- 
vent Deity  will  only  recoil  upon  our  owai  head.  There 
comes  up  from  all  our  thronged  cities  a  wail  of  hunger 
and  of  want,  which  will  continue  to  fall  upon  the  ear  of 
humanity  with  ever-increasing  volume  and  bitterness  until 
the  landless  and  the  unemployed  shall  return  to  seek  from 
the  full  bosom  of  their  mother  earth  that  subsistence  she 
proffers  to  all  her  children.  Hunger  should  be  unknown 
in  this  land.  We  might  expect  her  and  her  horrid  brood, 
famine,  social  demoralization  and  crime,  in  the  overcrowd- 
ed populations  of  the  old  world.  But,  except  when  asso- 
ciated with  the  vice  of  indolence,  there  ought  to  be  no 
place  for  hunger  among  us.  If  the  mechanic  arts,  devoted 
to  creating  luxuries  for  the  rich,  or  even  the  necessary 


AGRICULTURE.  8 1 

comforts  of  all,  are  overthronged,  as  they  most  certainly 
are  ;  if  clerkships  are  overdone,  and  the  whole  circle  of 
salaried  places  are  overstocked  by  reason  of  the  curtail- 
ment of  the  business  of  the  country;  if  Young  America, 
pluming  itself  with  lofty  airs,  has  discovered  that  city  or 
countr)'  idleness  has  a  poor  promise  for  bread,  and  a  much 
poorer  for  the  support  of  wife  and  children,  there  is  open 
to  them  the  primal  occupation  of  agricultural  labor. 
Rather  than  suffer  from  want,  or  from  a  sense  of  depend- 
ence on  private  or  public  bount}',  let  them  penetrate  into 
the  western  wilderness,  or  onto  the  prairie,  and  with  cheap 
lands  and  steady  toil  secure  independent  bread.  It  may 
not  bring  wealth,  but  it  will  bring  what  is  better,  regular 
occupation  and  individual  independence.  It  may  remove 
them  from  the  excitements  of  a  city  life,  but  it  takes  their 
children  away  from  its  temptations,  and  sends  them  to 
that  school  whose  discipline  has  matured  the  strong  men 
of  all  ages ;  men  of  heroic  achievement,  men  of  scientific 
research,  men  who  make  both  the  fulcrum  and  the  lever 
which  move  the  moral  and  the  business  world.  I  mean 
the  school  founded  by  Necessity  and  taught  by  Labor. 

The  State  has  before  it  a  grave  question  to  solve.  How 
shall  it  save  property  and  industry  from  burthensome  tax- 
ation for  the  support  of  its  poor  ? 

We  will  hope  that  every  improvement  which  dispenses 
with  the  necessity  of  hand-labor  will  be  a  blessing  and 
not  a  curse ;  but  such  improvements  sometimes  create 
the  necessity  for  a  change  of  pursuits  by  large  classes  of 
labor. 

The  invention  of  sewing  machines  alone  is  said  to  have 
dispensed  with  the  services  of  twenty  thousand  females 
who  obtained  their  livelihood  as  seamstresses  in  the  single 
city  of  New  York.  You  ask  :  "  How  do  they  now  live?" 
Alas  I   upon  the  fate  of  man}-  we  drop  the  curtain   as   we 


82  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

pity,  and  almost  shrink  from  accusinfj,  while  the  patient 
suffering  and  cruel  want  of  multitudes  call  aloud  upon 
society  for  some  modification  of  its  systems  of  employ- 
ments, which  shall  enable  woman,  self-dependent,  to  earn 
her  support. 

I  have  no  sympathy  with  those  who  clamor  about  the 
political  wrongs  of  woman,  but  she  feels  hunger  as  well  as 
man.  She  feels,  as  do  we,  the  chilling  blasts  of  winter 
and  the  scorching  heats  of  summer.  The  children  of  the 
widow  need  home  and  comfort ;  and  of  a  general  system 
of  pursuits  which  excludes  her  from  earning  a  comfortable 
support  for  herself  and  offspring  in  methods  compatible 
with  her  purity  and  her  delicacy,  humanity  demands  a 
modification. 

O !  if  there  be  a  spectacle  in  the  world  which  might 
draw  pity  from  hearts  of  iron,  it  is  the  creature,  man  or 
woman,  with  a  dependent  household,  begging,  not  for 
bread  as  charity,  but  for  the  privilege  of  earning  it,  and 
this  poor  bounty  denied. 

What  wonder  that  nature,  overwhelmed  with  her  great 
sorrow,  at  times  loses  her  poise,  and  seeks  in  suicide  relief 
from  a  wretchedness  which  makes  even  the  grave  a 
friend ! 

Depend  upon  it,  there  is  something  radically  wrong, 
which  leaves  so  large  a  portion  of  the  labor  of  the 
country  for  months,  perhaps  for  years,  unemployed,  often 
throwing  it  upon  the  public  for  charitable  support.  I  do 
not  here  say  it  is  the  fault  of  the  government,  in  that  it 
pursues  a  policy  which  floods  the  country  with  the  manu- 
factured articles  of  European  industry. 

But  I  will  say,  I  believe  that  so  long  as  its  present 
policy  prevails,  a  large  percentage  of  our  mechanics  and 
artisans  will  be  compelled  to  go  to  agricultural  pursuits 
for   subsistence.       Here    the    promise    cannot    fail.      For 


AGRICULTURE.  83 

whether  the  market  be  high  or  low,  summer  and  winter, 
seed  time  and  harvest,  are  sure  to  come  in  regular  succes- 
sion. And  our  common  mother  will  feed  from  her  luxu- 
riant bosom  every  son  and  daughter  that  seeks  her  kind 
nursery. 

But  while  there  are  some  features  in  our  time  that  pro- 
voke criticism,  there  are  others  which  make  us  proud  of 
our  Era.  When  we  consider  the  genius  of  the  present 
age,  in  its  connection  with  discovery  and  invention  in 
agricultural  science,  and  the  mechanic  arts,  it  seems 
almost  to  have  re-created  the  civilized  world. 

It  may  safely  be  said,  that  the  last  century  has  done 
more  by  its  discoveries  and  inventions  to  increase  the 
physical  comfort  of  the  masses  of  men,  and  to  give  value  to 
their  labor,  than  have  all  the  preceding  ages  of  the  world. 
And  if  we  consider  this  progress  as  the  triumph  of  the 
human  understanding,  our  generation  seems  to  be  realiz- 
ing the  fable  of  Prometheus,  and  bringing  down  fire  from 
the  gods. 

How  infinite  the  variety  of  improvements  in  every 
branch  of  agricultural  industry,  which  have"  made  tillage 
almost  pastime,  compared  with  the  severe  toil  of  former 
times.  Contrast  for  a  moment  the  present  with  the 
former  mode  of  harvesting  a  field  of  grain.  Picture  to 
your  minds  the  army  of  slow  reapers  and  binders,  the 
gathering  into  barns,  a  long  winter  devoted  to  beating 
out  of  a  few  bushels  of  grain  per  day,  the  wearisome 
fanning  mill,  and  then  the  slow  process  of  teaming  away 
the  season's  product  a  score  or  two  miles  to  an  uncertain 
market.  Then  witness,  on  the  other  hand,  a  field  of  a 
hundred  acres  by  the  simple  agencies  of  modern  inven- 
tion, under  the  guidance  of  a  few  hands,  harvested,  and 
its  ripe  grain  cleaned  and  made  ready  for  the  mill  be- 
tween the  rising  and  the  setting  of  a  single  day's  sun. 


84  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

But  let  us  consider  for  a  moment,  two  or  three  of  the 
inventions  of  the  age,  which  have  made  most  marked 
impress  upon  it,  and  observe  the  influence  upon  the 
social  as  well  as  physical  condition  of  society  of  inven- 
tion in  the  mechanic  arts. 

Foremost  among  its  early  inventions,  I  would  place 
Whitney's  Cotton-gin.  This  not  only  added  incalculable 
value  to  the  property  of  the  cotton-growing  States,  but 
by  infinitely  increasing  the  quantity  of  their  beautiful 
product,  and  by  lessening  its  price,  it  brought  within  the 
reach  of  every  American  and  English  home  the  cleanly 
and  comfortable  attire  which  is  now  as  universal  as  taste 
and  good  sense  in  woman. 

It  is  interesting  to  trace  the  effect  of  that  improvement 
upon  the  inventive  genius  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race. 

With  abundance  of  cotton  arose  the  necessity  for  im- 
proved machinery  for  its  manufacture.  And  the  old 
loom  and  shuttle  of  the  early  part  of  the  century,  have 
been  superseded  by  the  most  exquisitely-wrought  and 
nicely-adjusted  machinery  that  the  wit  of  man  can  devise. 

It  is  no  less  interesting  to  observe  the  adaptedness  of 
successive  improvements  to  existing  wants.  With  cotton, 
if  not  made  king,  at  least  made  royal,  in  the  commercial 
world,  arose  the  necessity  of  increased  motive  power  in 
the  carrying  trade  by  land  and  sea.  That  mighty  agency, 
until  now  the  wonder  of  the  world,  itself  the  greatest 
material  revolutionist  the  world  ever  saw,  overthrowing 
with  radical  hand  the  most  venerable  systems  of  labor, 
leveling  with  ruthless  arm  all  the  motive  power  structures 
of  past  times,  and  building  an  empire  of  its  own,  omnipo- 
tent and  universal,  at  once  arose  as  by  some  conjuring 
spell,  with  ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand  invisible 
arms  to  do  the  labor  of  the  world's  great  workshop — to 
transform  the  fleecy  balls  of  cotton    into   that  beautiful 


AGRICULTURE.  85 

fabric  which  has  done  so  much  for  humanity — to  drive 
the  shaft  into  the  hidden  mines  of  earth,  and  to  bring  up 
her  secreted  treasures  from  their  depths — to  strike  hands 
with  the  metal  types  of  our  alphabet,  and,  thus  allied, 
scatter  the  newspaper,  the  school-book,  and  the  sacred 
writings,  wherever  there  is  a  mind  to  be  enlightened,  or  a 
soul  to  be  fed,  to  propel  against  wind  and  tide  the  fleets 
of  the  world,  whether  on  the  errands  of  Peace,  or  the 
more  terrible  missions  of  War. 

When  previous  discoveries  had  prepared  the  way,  and 
created  the  necessity,  steam  as  a  mechanical  force  ap- 
peared, making  an  era  in  the  relations  of  labor  more  dis- 
tinct and  important  than  any  other  of  modern  ages. 

But  these  fruits  of  inventive  genius  were  material  in 
their  relations.  They  contributed  infinitely  to  human 
comfort,  and  to  national  wealth,  and  by  the  agency  of 
steam  something  was  done  to  strengthen  the  brotherhood 
of  nations.  But  still  it  could  be  said,  with  more  truth 
than  philanthrop)^  could  desire,  if  with  less  than  when 
Cowper  sung,  that 

Lands  intersected  by  a  narrow  frith 
Abhor  each  other.     Mountains  interpos'd, 
Make  enemies  of  nations,  who  had  else 
Like  kindred  drops  been  mingled  into  one. 

Physically,  the  mountains  still  stand,  gathering  the 
moisture  of  the  lakes,  the  rivers  and  the  oceans,  that  it 
may  fall  again  in  genial  showers  to  gladden  and  fertilize 
the  earth. 

The  seas  still  remain  to  purify  by  their  never-resting 
tidal  waves,  and  to  offer  a  highway  for  the  traffic  and 
intercourse  of  the  nations,  but  morally,  they  have  ceased 
to  divide  earth's  great  empires. 

The  electric  telegraph,  for  political  purposes  and  inter- 
national relations,  has  leveled  the  one  and  annihilated 
the  other. 


86  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

Proximity  of  States  luiviiiL^  a  common  lan<^uage  and  a 
common  ci\-ilization  must,  in  this  age,  be  an  important 
element  in  maintaining  peace  and  good  will.  It  is  in  this 
relation  that  I  find  the  highest  occasion  for  gratulation 
over  that  achievement,  the  connection  of  the  continents 
by  the  Atlantic  cable.  For  although  the  intelligence  of 
the  last  two  or  three  days  casts  some  doubt  upon  the 
success  of  the  present  cable,  I  think  the  feasibility  of 
the  project  entirely  settled,  and  it  is  but  a  question  of 
months,  when  its  permanent  success  will  equal  the  brill- 
iancy of  its  recent  promise.  The  commercial  advantages 
of  this  link  between  the  Continents  are  but  as  dust  in 
the  balance,  compared  with  its  influence  upon  the  peace 
of  the  world,  and  especially  of  the  two  nations  now 
brought  into  so  intimate  connection.  The  electric  tele- 
graph is  henceforth  to  be  the  great  diplomatist.  Interna- 
tional disputes  between  heretofore  widely  separated 
States,  easily  heated  by  passion  into  war,  will  be  brought 
by  cabinets  to  this  simple  agency,  and  the  sea,  no  longer 
the  theatre  of  bloody  conflicts  and  commercial  robbery, 
will  become  the  medium  for  the  instant  transmission  of 
the  courteous  explanation,  the  friendly  surrender  of  the 
point  disputed,  and  the  noble  purpose  of  a  nation's  justice 
and  honor. 

The  invention  of  Morse  is  henceforth  to  be  more  poten- 
tial with  ministries  than  all  the  cunning  policy  of  a 
Machiavel  or  a  Talleyrand. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  friendly  alliance  between 
France  and  England,  from  which  we  hope  so  much  of 
advantage  to  the  world,  dates  from  a  time  subsequent 
to  their  connection  by  the  electric  telegraph.  It  is  a 
pleasing  fact,  also,  that  the  first  important  tidings  borne 
to  us  by  this  matchless  agency  through  the  caverns  of 
the   ocean,  are   tidings  of  peace  and   civilization,  carried 


AGRICULTURE.  87 

by  English  and  French  energy  to  the  Empire  of  China. 
How  wonderful  the  coincidence!  Simultaneously  with 
the  annihilation  of  all  space  between  the  great  western 
powers,  the  walls  of  the  Celestial  Empire  crumble  to  the 
earth,  and  China  for  the  first  time  comes  into  the  brother- 
hood of  Nations. 

Well  may  this  triumph  of  genius  be  styled  the  most 
wonderful  of  the  age.  It  is  wonderful,  and  stands  alone 
in  this.  It  is  the  ultimatum  ;  there  is  no  beyond.  There 
may  be  a  perfection  of  its  machinery,  but  there  can  be 
no  advance  in  the  mere  transmission  of  thought.  After  a 
reign  of  6,000  years  with  the  everlasting  mountains  to 
defend  his  domain,  with  the  illimitable  seas  and  trackless 
deserts  to  guard  his  solitudes,  Space  has  at  length  sur- 
rendered both  trident  and  sceptre  to  the  Genius  of 
American  Invention. 

It  is  just  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  since  Addison 
reproduced  to  the  readers  of  The  Spectator  that  pleasant 
conceit  of  Strada,  which  pictured  the  correspondence  of 
two  widely-separated  lovers  carried  on  by  two  sympa- 
thetic needles  acting  upon  a  dial-plate,  upon  which  was 
inscribed  the  several  letters  of  the  alphabet.  "  By  this 
means,"  says  the  humorist,  "  they  talked  together  across  a 
whole  continent,  and  conveyed  their  thoughts  to  one 
another  in  an  instant,  over  cities  or  mountains,  seas  or 
deserts." 

We  have  lived  to  see  this  fancy  become  the  great  fact 
of  this  age.  Not  only  are  lovers  to  be  made  happy  by  the 
annihilation  of  space,  the  great  desideratum  of  all  times, 
but  commerce,  and  art  and  science,  and  our  cherished 
religion,  each  will  have  their  sympathetic  needle,  making 
intelligence  universal,  and  the  individual  mind  almost 
ubiquitous. 


88  ADDRESSES   AND   MISCELLANIES. 

Ikit  it  is  time  that  I  brin^-  these  ver\'  desultory  remarks 
to  a  close.  This  exhibtioii,  now  a  permanent  institution 
of  the  country,  is  one  of  the  most  pleasing  featuit;s  of  our 
national  life.  It  is  festive  and  social,  bringing  together  in 
holiday  spirit  the  common  sympathies  and  common  pur- 
suits of  the  country.  It  enlarges  your  neighborhood, 
makes  new  and  strengthens  old  friendships,  and  at  the 
same  time  promotes  a  wholesome  spirit  of  general  improve- 
ment in  your  agriculture  and  in  your  arts. 

As  agriculturists  of  Western  New  York,  with  what  min- 
gled  pleasure  and  pride  do  you  contemplate  the  progress 
in  all  that  gives  wealth  and  glory  to  a  State  of  this  now 
developed  and  beautiful  region.  A  half  century  ago  it 
was  the  land  of  hope  and  promise,  to  which  the  enterprise 
of  the  East  was  directed,  and  which,  though  it  then  seemed 
to  lie  far  away  toward  the  setting  sun,  invited  the  emigrant 
and  the  stranger  here  to  erect  their  altars,  to  plant  vines 
and  fig  trees  for  their  living,  yea,  and  find  graves  for  their 
dead.  Steadily  rolled  the  tide  of  emigration  from  New 
England  and  Eastern  New  York,  not  as  we  have  seen  it 
in  our  generation,  in  flood-tides,  by  railway  and  steam- 
vessel,  which  transfer  in  a  few  days  hundreds  of  thousands 
almost  across  a  continent,  but  in  the  most  primitive  and 
wearisome  modes  of  travel,  over  rude  roads  fresh  cut 
through  the  thick  forests,  and  over  morasses  whose  mias- 
mas were  often  freighted  with  diseases  and  death.  To 
this  land,  to  these  attractive  valleys  of  Western  New 
York,  they  came  full  of  hope,  to  toil,  to  sacrifice,  to  dis- 
pute possession  with  savage  beasts  and  savage  men.  And 
behold  the  results  of  their  labors  !  Thriving  cities,  beau- 
tiful villages,  a  cultivated  country — the  early  wilderness  a 
ga'rden,  and  the  thorn  a  rose.  Most  of  those  brave- 
hearted  men  and  women  now  sleep  the  sleep  that  knows 
no  waking.     A  few  still  survive,  and  probably  some  have 


AGRICULTURE.  89 

mingled  in  these  festivities  who  felled  the  first  trees  that 
yielded  to  the  axe  of  the  pioneer.  They  have  lived  to  see 
emigration  roll  a  human  sea  almost  across  the  continent, 
and  a  dozen  States  spring  up,  as  by  magic,  between 
them  and  the  Pacific  Ocean.  They  have  aided  to  place 
New  York  at  the  head  of  this  confederation  of  States, 
and  when  they  too  shall  have  passed  away,  they  will  leave 
a  rich  legacy  to  the  now  active  generation — the  example 
and  the  fruits  of  endurance,  of  fortitude,  of  that  will  which 
knows  not  to  be  subjugated,  of  that  character  which,  well 
disciplined  and  self-reliant,  is  everywhere  an  all-subduing 
energy  and  power. 
7 


go  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 


RELATIONS    OF   AGRICULTURE. 

Extract    from    an   Address   delivered    before    the  Chautauqua 
County  Agricultural  Society,  September  15,  1S59. 


I  CONFESS  English  landlordism  has  no  charms  for  me. 
It  is  a  pillar  of  the  State,  colossal  in  wealth  and  power, 
and  of  more  than  Corinthian  splendor  in  its  entablatures, 
but  its  base  rests  upon  the  unduly  rewarded  labor  of  the 
toiling  masses,  who  are  taxed  in  every  imaginable  way  to 
keep  up  the  magnificence  of  a  landed  gentry.  Commend 
me  to  the  development  in  my  own  country  of  the  demo- 
cratic idea,  as  it  is  related  to  property  and  homesteads. 

Let  us  consider  the  relative  strength  and  power  of  Ag- 
riculture. Agriculture  is  the  central  pillar  of  our  national 
prosperity.  Necessary  as  are  the  mechanic  arts  and  com- 
merce to  the  development  of  the  strength  of  a  State, 
they  hold  a  secondary,  not  a  primary  position.  Men 
must  first  be  fed.  The  whole  world  stands  at  the  door  of 
the  farmer,  ready  to  part  with  its  choicest  possessions  for 
the  fruit  of  his  labor ;  while  the  farmer  alone  is  compara- 
tively independent  of  the  world.  Intimate  as  are  the 
relations  of  husbandry  with  commerce  and  the  arts,  it  is 
the  intimacy  of  convenience  rather  than  necessity.  The 
farmer  may  have  little  civilization  without  them,  but  he 
has  bread,  and  that  is  the  prime  necessity. 

The  great  motive  power  to  private  and  public  enter- 
prise in  modern  States  is  material  wealth. 


RELATIONS   OF   AGRICULTURE.  9 1 

The  nation  that  can  get  the  most  gold,  is  not  it  the 
foremost  ?  Our  private  cupidity  sometimes  outstrips 
itself  in  this  pursuit.  Pike's  Peak  set  two  hundred  thou- 
sand of  our  people  to  moving  over  the  barren  desert  with 
herds  and  flocks,  and  women  and  children,  marking  the 
pathway  of  their  pilgrimage  with  the  graves  of  their  dead 
who  fell  by  the  way. 

A  few  weeks'  time  reveals  their  folly,  and  teaches  them 
that  substantial  wealth  for  the  mass  of  men,  comes  not, 
and  cannot  come,  from  the  mine  where  a  blade  of  grass 
cannot  grow,  nor  a  kernel  of  grain  germinate,  but  from 
production. 

A  nation's  strength  is  not  to  be  determined  by  its  sup- 
ply of  precious  metals.  When  Croesus  exhibited  to  Solon 
his  gold  and  silver,  Solon  said  to  him  that  when  another 
nation  should  come  that  had  better  iron  than  he,  it  would 
be  master  of  all  his  wealth.  I  suppose  his  idea  was,  that 
iron  furnished  in  that  age  of  conflict  the  implements  of 
war,  and  could  better  equip  armies  for  purposes  of  con- 
quest. But  it  involved  as  well  a  moral  truth,  which  will 
stand  while  the  world  stands.  The  nation  that  has  an 
over-abundance  of  the  precious  metals  will  be  luxurious 
and  efieminate,  neglectful  of  agriculture,  too  proud  to  en- 
gage in  mechanic  arts,  while  the  people  who  are  com- 
pelled to  be  producers  will  be  enriched  by  traffic  with 
their  luxurious  neighbors,  and  made  hardy  and  vigorous 
by  toil.  Gold  debauches  and  enfeebles,  iron  purifies  and 
invigorates. 

In  modern  times,  producing  nations  have  become  rich, 
while  gold-hunting  nations  have  become  poor.  England 
and  Spain  illustrate  this  position.  The  former  country  in 
the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  was  less  formidable 
as  a  power,  and  had  less  resources  at  command,  than  the 
peninsular  State.     Yet  having  no  source  of  wealth  except 


92  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

b}'  production,  industry  and  commerce,  to  these  slie 
directed  her  energies,  and  she  is,  to-day,  perhaps,  the 
richest  country  in  the  world. 

On  the  other  hand,  Spain,  after  the  Western  conquests, 
had  almost  limitless  treasures  in  gold  and  silver,  yet  when 
in  the  height  of  her  glory,  in  the  most  brilliant  ei)och  of 
her  literature,  and  art,  and  discovery,  when  filling  her 
cathedrals,  and  her  royal  exchange,  and  her  ecclesiastical 
houses,  with  the  spoils  of  conquered  continents,  relying, 
as  she  did,  on  the  precious  metals  for  her  wealth,  and 
neglecting  the  enduring  and  ever-increasing  interests  of 
agriculture,  rapidly  hastened  into  decline,  and  to-day  is 
the  scoff  and  melancholy  pity  of  the  world. 

Even  commercial  prosperity  seems  subject  to  laws  less 
stable  than  agricultural.  Many  once  rich  commercial 
countries  have  been  unable  to  maintain  their  position, 
and  nothing  is  more  certain  than  that  but  few  great  com- 
mercial cities  can  long  retain  their  pre-eminence.  Hol- 
land, two  or  three  centuries  ago  a  leading  commercial 
State,  steadily  declined  as  the  Western  powers  of  Europe 
progressed. 

In  the  middle  ages,  and  down  to  the  fifteenth  century, 
seventy  commercial  towns  of  Germany  and  Prussia 
formed  themselves  into  a  commercial  association  known 
as  the  Henseatic  League.  For  two  hundred  years  it  was 
almost  omnipotent,  building  up  cities  of  untold  wealth, 
with  a  monetary  sway  over  Central  Europe  almost  impe- 
rial. Few  of  those  cities  have  now  so  much  as  a  third- 
rate  position  as  commercial  towns,  and  their  sway  has 
been  transferred  to  other  centers.  Trade  is  subject  to 
laws  which  cannot  be  controlled.  A  war  or  a  peace,  some 
new  channel  of  communication,  or  the  discovery  and  set- 
tlement of  new  regions,  will  often  divert  the  course  of 
trade  in  new  and  unexpected  directions.     The  old  centers 


RELATIONS  OF  AGRICULTURE.  93 

languish,  and  Paris,  London,  Liverpool  and  New  York, 
for  the  time  become  the  controlling  centers  of  commer- 
cial empire.  We  have  seen  the  same  principle  at  work 
in  our  infant  country.  Newport  once  promised  to  be 
the  leading  Atlantic  city.  It  is  now  a  watering-place 
where  fashion,  not  commerce,  reigns.  With  us,  commer- 
cial cities,  except  two  or  three  on  the  Atlantic,  seem  to 
follow  emigration.  This  is  the  secret  of  the  rapid  growth 
of  fortunes  in  real  estate  in  Western  cities,  and  their  often 
about  as  rapid  decline.  They  fancy  they  have  only  to 
hold  open  their  lap  and  the  world  will  always  fill  it. 
Some  morning  they  wake  up  and  find  their  channel  dry. 
Business  has  found  a  new  vein.  To  tell  how  long  it  will 
keep  it  requires  good  guessing. 

The  prosperity  of  agriculture  is  dependent  upon  favor- 
ing circumstances,  but  the  great  grain  centers  of  the 
world  seem  not  to  change  so  easily  as  do  the  commercial. 
The  valley  of  the  Nile  has  been  one  of  the  world's  gran- 
aries since  the  Pharaohs.  The  valley  of  the  Mississippi 
is  the  Nile  of  the  New  World,  and  ever  will  be.  The 
world  finds  out  where  it  can  be  fed,  and  as  the  children 
of  Israel  turned  to  Egypt  in  famine,  so  will  the  non-pro- 
ducing sections  of  our  own  country  and  European  States 
in  their  times  of  scarcity,  always  call  upon  the  great  pro- 
ducing regions  for  bread,  "  that  they  may  live  and  not 
die." 

Let  us  look  for  a  moment  at  the  comparative  impor- 
tance of  our  agriculture.  It  pays  three-fourths  of  our 
taxes,  represents  five-sixths  of  the  capital  of  the  country, 
employs  nearly  fifty  per  cent,  of  its  industry,  and  pro- 
duces nearly  twenty  hundred  millions  of  dollars  per 
annum,  in  value.  The  single  item  of  our  native  Indian 
corn  was  estimated  by  the  census  of  1850  at  three  hundred 
million  dollars. 


94  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

This  demonstrates  that  production  is  the  source  of  our 
national  wealth,  and  that  agriculture  is  the  central  i)il]ar 
of  the  State.  It  is  the  great  exchequer  of  the  country, 
"  on  which  it  must  ha\'e  a  perpetual  credit,  or  it  perishes 
irretrievably."  It  presents  the  strongest  claims  to  the 
protection  and  patronage  of  the  government,  so  far  as 
they  may  be  justly  exercised  in  its  behalf. 


BUFFALO   GENERAL   HOSPITAL.  95 


BUFFALO    GENERAL    HOSPITAL. 

Address  delivered  at  the  Dedicatory  Exercises, 
June  24,  1858. 


Beautiful  are  the  relations  of  Commerce  and  of  the 
State  to  Humanity,  when  they  are  allied  with  a  Christian 
civilization.  In  her  activity  amid  the  marts  of  the  world, 
in  her  eager  pursuit  of  material  wealth  on  every  continent 
and  sea,  braving  all  dangers,  superior  to  all  difficulties,  and 
gathering  the  riches  of  the  earth  into  her  garners,  we 
admire  Commerce  as  an  energy  and  a  power.  But  when 
she  lays  aside  her  character  as  a  money-hunter,  and  takes 
her  place  among  the  sweet  charities  which  beautify  and 
ennoble  society — when  she  brings  liberally  of  her  richest 
fruits  gathered  from  the  field  of  the  world,  into  the  Temple 
of  Humanity,  we  love  her  as  the  ally  of  our  pure  faith  and 
the  handmaid  of  civilization. 

When  we  ascend  from  a  mere  element  of  material  prog- 
ress to  the  State  itself,  whose  institutions  and  polity  are 
organized  to  protect  labor  and  enterprise,  and  to  afford 
security  to  its  citizenship  in  remotest  lands  and  on  the 
most  far-off  seas,  we  find  the  most  honorable  exponents 
of  its  spirit  in  its  public  charities. 

New  York  is  proud,  and  has  a  right  to  be  so,  of  her 
greatness,  of  the  results  of  that  wise  policy  which  at  an 
early  day  struck  boldly  for  the  position  of  empire  in  con- 
nection with  the  trade  and  commerce  of  the  lakes  and  the 
Upper  Mississippi ;  but  by  far  her  greatest  glory,  by  far 
the  richest  jewels  in  her  crown,  are  the  charitable  institu- 
tions,  her  hospitals   and  asylums,  now  dotting  over  the 


96  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

whole  State,  reaehing  every  grade  of  physical  suffering, 
reflecting,  as  they  do,  the  noblest  and  most  unselfish  sen- 
timents of  our  human  nature. 

Citizens  of  Buffalo,  these  thoughts  are  suggested  by  the 
associations  of  this  day  and  occasion.  Our  city  has  long 
rejoiced  in  the  title,  "  Queen  of  the  Lakes  ;  "  not  more 
because  she  sits  like  a  queen  arrayed  in  beauty  at  the  foot 
of  these  inland  seas,  than  because  of  her  enterprise  and 
pre-eminence,  her  wealth  and  her  power,  as  a  commercial 
town.  In  past  days  you  have  rejoiced  in  her  material 
progress.  You  now  look  with  conscious  pride  at  her 
enlarged  harbors,  her  increasing  docks,  her  public  archi- 
tecture, and  all  the  indicia  of  growing  strength  and 
position. 

But  to-day  we  are  permitted  to  commune  with  higher 
sentiments,  and  are  met,  under  the  favoring  providence  of 
Him  who  is  the  source  of  all  mercy,  to  dedicate  an  offer- 
ing to  humanity.  May  we  not  hope  that  an  enterprise  so 
worthily  begun  shall  be  the  initiative  of  our  higher  devo- 
tion to  the  social  obligations  of  our  wealth  and  position. 

The  history  of  the  Buffalo  General  Hospital,  in  brief,  is 
this  :  Our  rapidly-increasing  commerce  and  growing  city 
created  the  necessity  for  greater  facilities  for  charitable, 
medical  and  surgical  relief  to  indigent  persons,  who,  while 
pursuing  their  avocations  by  land  or  water,  should  be 
struck  down  by  casualties  or  disease.  Although  for  some 
time  there  had  been  one  or  two  institutions  which  afforded 
considerable  relief,  they  were  altogether  inadequate  to  the 
public  wants,  and  were  not  upon  a  basis  so  general  as  the 
tone  of  the  public  feeling  demanded. 

A  few  of  our  citizens  appreciating  the  exigency,  organ- 
ized, under  the  general  act  of  the  State  incorporating  such 
institutions,  the  association  for  a  general  hospital,  on  the 
twenty-first  of  November,   1855.     In   1856,  subscriptions 


BUFFALO   GENERAL   HOSPITAL.  97 

from  citizens  were  solicited,  and  in  the  winter  of  1857  ^^^^ 
State  appropriated  ten  thousand  dollars  to  the  institution. 
The  trustees  have  reali/.ed  from  local  subscriptions  about 
twenty  thousand  dollars,  which,  together  with  the  State 
appropriation,  has  enabled  the  association  to  place  the 
hospital  on  its  present  basis.  In  June,  1857,  '^^'^^  pur- 
chased this  commanding  and  healthy  site.  It  has  a  front 
of  361  feet  on  High  street,  a  depth  of  282  feet,  with  a 
front  on  Goodrich  street  of  450  feet.  The  west  wing  of 
the  general  plan  of  the  hospital  is  now  completed,  having 
four  wards  of  seventy  by  twenty-seven  feet,  and  capable 
of  accommodating  one  hundred  inmates.  An  additional 
building  for  the  laundry  and  engine  for  heating  the  hos- 
pital buildings  and  supplying  them  with  water,  has  also 
been  erected.  So  far  as  the  work  has  progressed  it  is 
complete,  and  is  now  ready  for  the  reception  of  patients. 
The  arduous  duties  of  the  trustees  have  been  faithfully 
performed,  and  they  deserve  our  hearty  thanks  and  appre- 
ciation. Buffalo  has  now  the  embryo  of  a  commodious 
and  adequate  public  hospital.  Its  doors  are  thrown 
open,  wide  open,  to  the  poor  of  every  name  and  every 
creed.  So  long  as  your  canvas  whitens  yonder  waters,  so 
long  as  from  yonder  solemn  temples  shall  rise  to  heaven 
the  songs  of  praise  and  adoration,  so  long  as  yonder 
thronged  avenues  shall  echo  the  tread  of  human  foot- 
steps, so  long  may  they  remain  open,  by  your  and  your 
children's  bounty  "  on  golden  hinges  moving,"  inviting 
to  their  healing  charities  the  sons  of  want  and  sorrow, 
recognizing  no  law  of  special  grace  save  that  "  touch  of 
nature  which  makes  the  whole  world  kin."  To  a  Human- 
ity so  universal,  and  which  is  beautiful  only  as  it  reflects 
the  mercy  of  Him  whom  all  the  sons  of  Adam  call 
Father,  we  dedicate  this  edifice  and  these  grounds,  their 


98  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

present   and  their  future.     And   may  God  himself  bless 
the  offering. 

Fellow-citizens,  it  is  fitting  that  we  here  recognize  our 
social  obligations  to  the  Christian  religion.  With  Chris- 
tianity came  a  new  social  element  into  the  world.  Man 
bore  to  his  fellow  the  same  duties  and  relations  before 
the  annunciation  of  good  tidings  to  the  Shepherds  of 
Bethlehem,  as  now;  but  the  coarser  civilization  of  the 
pagan  ages  had  failed  to  recognize  them.  Rome  was 
characterized  by  strength  and  energy.  She  was  a  mighty 
force,  but  rather  material  than  spiritual.  Greece  was  dis- 
tinguished for  grace  and  elegance,  and  her  institutions  in 
her  better  days  realized  the  ideal  of  all  that  is  command- 
ing in  genius  and  beautiful  in  art.  But  humanity,  as 
developed  by  the  Great  Teacher,  was  almost  unknown 
by  those  pagan  powers.  "  I  am  a  man,  and  I  deem  all 
that  is  allied  to  humanity  kindred  to  myself,"  was  the 
sentiment  of  a  Latin  poet ;  but  it  was  never  embodied  in 
ancient  institutions,  nor  infused  into  the  spirit  of  ancient 
society. 

The  Saviour  of  men  was  the  first  to  give  a  higher  tone 
to  social  laws  and  sympathies.  When  the  incarnate  God 
made  our  nature  more  glorious  by  assuming  its  form,  when 
He  gave  dignity  to  its  meanest  types,  by  healing  them  of 
the  most  loathsome  diseases  ;  when,  leaving  the  glories 
which  would  seduce  Him  from  His  mission,  to  find  the 
hungry  that  He  might  feed  them,  and  the  naked  that  He 
might  clothe  them  ;  when  He  taught  Flis  disciples  that 
to  give  a  cup  of  cold  water  to  one  of  the  least  of  the 
children  of  men  was  an  act  of  mercy  to  God  himself; 
when  He  left  as  a  legacy  the  poor  of  the  world  as  objects 
of  perpetual  care ;  and,  above  all,  when  He  taught  by 
precept  and  parable  and  example  the  second  great  com- 
mand, that  man  "  should  love  his  neighbor  as  himself," 


BUFFALO   GENERAL   HOSPITAL.  99 

He  made  the  sentiment  of  humanity  one  of  the  strongest 
forces  of  individual  and  social  life.  It  has  recast  the  whole 
spirit  of  society  and  softened  its  severest  features.  It  has 
given  a  grace  even  to  the  rough  visage  of  war ;  and  if  it 
has  not  made  Commerce  less  aggressive,  it  has  rendered 
her  socially  attractive  by  wedding  her  to  public  and  private 
benevolence. 

We  find  ourselves  cast  upon  a  period  when  charity,  not 
prodigal  and  inconsiderate,  but  judicious  and  discrimina- 
ting, is  not  only  a  social  but  a  religious  obligation.  He  who 
does  not  recognize  this  truth,  whatever  may  be  his  creed, 
panoplied  though  he  be  all  over  with  synodical  orthodoxy, 
knows  nothing  of  the  spirit  of  the  Christian  religion. 
That  religion  cannot  be  dissevered  from  the  duties  im- 
posed by  a  common  humanity.  The  self-righteous  priest, 
arrayed  in  his  phylacteries,  and  on  his  way,  perhaps,  to 
the  gorgeous  worship  of  the  synagogue,  when  he  chanced 
upon  the  traveler  stripped  and  wounded  by  the  thieves, 
passed  by  on  the  other  side,  leaving  him  half  dead  by  the 
way.  The  despised  Samaritan,  whose  touch  that  priest 
would  have  deemed  pollution,  and  who  probably  would 
hardly  have  presumed  to  lift  so  much  as  his  eyes  to  heaven, 
when  he  saw  the  poor  wayfarer,  "  had  compassion  on  him, 
and  went  to  him,  and  bound  up  his  wounds,  pouring  in  oil 
and  wine,  and  set  him  on  his  own  beast,  and  brought  him 
to  an  inn,  and  took  care  of  him.  And  on  the  morrow, 
when  he  departed,  he  took  out  two  pence,  and  gave  them 
to  the  host,  and  said  unto  him.  Take  care  of  him  ;  and 
whatsoever  thou  spendest  more,  when  I  come  again  I  will 
repay  thee."  O  !  what  a  sublime  lesson  has  come  down 
to  us  through  eighteen  centuries,  proclaiming  in  tones 
sweet  as  charity  and  audible  as  the  voice  of  God,  that 
the  wounded  and  diseased,  the  poor  and  deserted  whom 
Providence  may  cast   in  our  wa}',  are  not  strangers  and 


lOO  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

aliens,  but  "  nei<^hbors  !  "  Shall  we  forget  the  command, 
universal  as  our  race  and  enduring  as  time,  which  follows 
this  touching  narrative,  the  example  of  the  "  good  Sama- 
ritan "  delineated  by  the  Master,  "  Go  and  do  thou  like- 
wise ? "  "  Go  and  do  thou  likewise  "  was  then  added  a 
fixed  star  among  the  moral  constellations  ;  and  wherever 
its  soft  light  falls  upon  the  children  of  sorrow,  it  evokes 
from  the  harp  of  human  sympathies  tones  responsive  to 
the  melody  of  heaven. 

Citizens  of  Buffalo,  this  command  rests  with  peculiar 
force  upon  us.  Our  location  at  the  foot  of  the  lakes,  and 
upon  the  border  of  this  river  which  divides  us  from  an- 
other nationality,  naturally  brings  to  us  many  who,  stricken 
by  disease,  have  need  of  a  hospital  home.  Yours  is  a 
commercial  city,  and  your  business,  in  its  manual  labor,  is 
severe  and  perilous.  You  owe  to  that  labor,  when  too 
poor  to  provide  for  itself,  the  nursery  and  medical  and 
surgical  care  of  a  hospital.  "  To  whom  much  is  given,  of 
them  shall  much  be  required."  Consider  for  a  moment 
your  obligations.  With  a  history  of  less  than  thirty-five 
years  since  the  completion  of  the  great  artery  which  con- 
nects the  Atlantic  with  the  lakes,  Buffalo  has  grown  from 
insignificance  to  power,  from  comparative  poverty  to  afflu- 
ence. Commerce  found  you  poor,  and  has  made  you  rich. 
She  found  your  lakes  a  solitude,  and  has  covered  them 
with  a  fleet  which  counts  its  tonnage  by  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands, and  its  freight  by  hundreds  of  millions.  She  has 
built  for  many  of  you  palatial  homes,  and  surrounded  you 
by  every  luxury  which  the  senses  can  demand,  and  every 
elegance  which  taste  and  art  can  contribute.  Let  no  man 
say  he  is  not  identified  directly  with  Commerce,  but  is  in 
the  exchange,  or  the  manufactory,  or  in  merchandise,  or 
in  some  of  the  great  corporations  where  capital  is  aggre- 
gated, and  therefore  he  owes  her  nothing.     Commerce  has 


BUFFALO   GENERAL   HOSPITAL.  lOI 

created  the  necessity  for,  and  is  interwoven  with,  all  these 
collateral  pursuits.  Commerce  is  to  all  your  business  what 
is  the  heart  to  the  human  body,  the  fountain  of  life. 
When  that  business  heart  beats  languidly,  your  every  pulse 
throbs  feebly  and  in  exact  unison.  Should  it  ever  cease 
to  beat  at  all,  business  stagnation  and  death  will  every- 
where reign,  and  Ilinin  fuit  be  inscribed  on  all  of  value  in 
your  docks  and  warehouses,  your  realty  and  your  mone- 
tary institutions.  Both  gratitude  and  an  enlightened 
selfishness  demand  of  us  the  completion  of  this  hospital 
so  worthily  begun. 

The  poor  sailor,  who  for  little  wages  endures  the  toil 
and  the  peril  of  these  waters,  whose  very  calling  makes 
him  alike  generous  and  prodigal,  who,  while  you  are  sit- 
ting secure  in  your  counting-rooms,  reckoning  the  gains 
of  traffic,  or  the  increase  of  capital,  or  are  luxuriating  in 
your  beautiful  homes,  is  often  high  on  the  giddy  mast, 
wrestling  with  the  tempest  and  combating  death  in  its 
most  horrible  forms,  exerting  every  energy  of  mind  and 
body  to  save  your  property  from  wreck  and  bring  it 
secure  to  harbor — he,  I  say,  has  a  right  to  ask  you  to 
furnish  him  a  hospital  to  which  he  may  take  his  body- 
enfeebled  and  broken  in  your  employ,  for  gratuitous 
attendance ;  which,  when  restored  to  health  and  vigor,  he 
re-devotes  to  the  same  service  and  the  same  perils. 

The  poor  mechanic,  too,  and  the  humblest  laborer,  who 
spend  the  energies  of  their  lives  in  building  your  public 
and  private  edifices,  and  whom  the  casualties  incident  to 
such  service  often  disable  and  render  necessary  the  nicest 
skill  of  the  surgeon,  have  a  right  to  expect  a  provision 
such  as  this  institution  contemplates. 

You  are  not  independent  of  these  classes,  but  are 
dependent  upon  their  labor  as  are  they  upon  your  capital. 
You  are  inter-dependent  upon  each  other,  and  the  mutu- 


102  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

ality  of  your  relations  but  increases  your  obligations. 
Then,  again,  we  have  at  times  the  stranger  at  our  gates. 
Far  from  home  and  friends  he  is  stricken  down  by  dis- 
ease. The  soft  hand  of  affection  is  not  here  to  cool  that 
fevered  brow,  and  the  gentle  voice  of  sympathy  and  love 
is  not  here  to  dispel  the  sense  of  loneliness  more  oppres- 
sive even  than  disease  or  death.  He  asks  not  for  charity, 
but  for  that  attendance  and  kind  nursery  which  the  senti- 
ment of  Christianity,  when  embodied  in  an  institution 
like  this,  can  alone  afford  him.  You  cannot  receive  him 
at  your  private  dwellings — and  there  is  no  place  for  him 
amid  the  turmoil  which  forms  so  necessary  a  part  of  the 
life  of  an  inn — and  where  shall  the  stranger  go  ?  A  hos- 
pital signifies  hospitality — and  here,  breathing  the  pure 
air  that  comes  up  from  these  health-inspiring  waters, 
amid  the  quiet  and  seclusion  of  this  charming  retreat, 
experiencing  the  kind  nursery  of  those  gentle-hearted 
persons,  and  especially  of  those  females  whose  noblest 
office  it  is  to  visit  the  sick  and  the  afflicted,  and  whose 
whole  sex  has  been  ennobled  by  a  Florence  Nightin- 
gale, faithfully  attended  by  the  skillful  and  beloved 
physician  whose  profession  has  expanded  and  made 
active  his  humanities,  and  ministered  to,  if  he  desire,  by 
those  spiritual  advisers  of  our  most  holy  religion  with 
whom  from  education  and  association  he  has  sympathies, 
at  length  your  invalid  guest  begins  to  feel  the  currents  of 
life  flow  with  health  and  vigor,  and,  as  often  as  otherwise, 
relieving  you  of  every  pecuniary  burthen  on  his  account, 
takes  his  grateful  adieus  of  your  institution  and  returns 
to  the  bosom  of  his  far-away  home.  Of  how  much 
greater  value  than  all  the  equipage  and  splendor  that 
ever  ministered  to  human  pride  or  provoked  the  envy  of 
human  folly,  are  the  emotions  and  the  affections  developed 
by  a  single  history  like  this  !     How  does  the  sentiment 


BUFFALO   GENERAL   HOSPITAL.  103 

that  creates  the  occasion  beautify  the  whole  spirit  of 
society.  How  docs  it  cast  into  eclipse  all  the  deeds  of 
knight-errantry  vaunted  in  legend  or  song !  Let  us  ever 
remember  that  while 

"  It  is  a  little  thing  to  speak  a  phrase 
Of  common  comfort,  which  by  daily  use 
Has  almost  lost  its  sense,  yet  on  the  ear 
Of  him  who  thought  to  die  unmourned, 'twill  fall 
Like  choicest  music." 

There  is  a  moral  advantage  not  to  be  forgotten  accru- 
ing to  those  who  cultivate  these  charitable  feelings. 
They  are  among  the  purest  of  our  nature,  they  attest 
more  than  do  all  our  other  attributes  our  creation  in  the 
image  of  the  Godhead.  We  best  preserve  that  image 
when  we  live  most  in  harmony  with  those  laws  of  benevo- 
lence which,  issuing  from  His  throne,  bind  the  moral 
universe  together.     Charity,  like  mercy,  is  a  "quality  not 

strained  ; 

it  is  twice  blessed  ; 


It  blesseth  him  that  gives,  and  him  that  takes." 

Paradoxical  as  it  may  seem,  God  has  so  organized  the 
moral  world  that,  in  that  kingdom,  we  become  rich  by 
bestowing,  we  gather  by  dispensing,  while  by  withholding 
we  are  impoverished,  and  are  made  poor  as  winter  by 
selfish  accumulations. 

Whatever  is  worthily  bestowed  in  these  offices  of 
charity  returns  to  the  donor  fifty  and  a  hundred  fold,  in 
refined  humanities  and  pure  social  feelings,  and  in  that 
greatest  of  all  luxuries  in  which  the  soul  can  delight,  the 
luxury  of  doing  good. 

This  hospital  and  its  kindred  institutions  in  our  midst, 
appeal  to  every  motive  which  can  influence  your  wealth 
to  place  them  upon  a  permanent  basis  of  the  largest  use- 
fulness.    It  appeals  even  to  your  amiable  weakness.    The 


I04  ADDRESSES    AND    MISCELLANIES. 

instinct  of  our  nature  craves  some  remembrance  when 
the  grave  shall  have  closed  over  us.  There  are  none  so 
"  to  dumb  forgetfulness  a  prey,"  to  whom  the  conscious- 
ness that  some  memorial  shall  survive  them,  is  not  more 
than  pleasing.  If  that  instinct  can  be  gratified  and  that 
gratification  be  associated  with  a  gentle  charity,  which 
shall  for  all  generations  occasion  a  grateful  remembrance 
of  the  giver,  who  would  not  seek  so  easy  and  beautiful  an 
immortality?  By  so  associating  yourselves  with  humanity 
there  is  a  sense  in  which,  even  here,  you  can  never  die. 

Personated  in  your  charity,  you  become  a  felt  presence 
wherever  your  bounty  binds  up  a  wounded  heart  or 
relieves  a  single  sorrow.  Your  hand,  until  the  sun  shall 
cease  his  shining,  can  hold  the  cup  of  "  cool  refreshment  " 
within  these  walls  to  fevered  lips,  ever  bedewed  with  tears 
of  gratitude,  and  your  tongue  utter  words  of  sympathy 
and  hope  which  shall  associate  your  name,  until  time 
shall  be  no  more,  with  the  tenderest  recollections  of  life 
ebbing  away.  There  is  a  practical  consideration  that  may 
be  named  in  this  connection.  What  is  given  to  these 
permanent  institutions  is  secure  against  waste  or  decay. 
You  may  leave  a  million  to  each  of  your  children  to  be 
by  them  perhaps  prudently  husbanded,  but  with  the  cer- 
tain knowledge  that  under  our  polity  the  third,  if  not  the 
second,  generation  after  them  will  find  nothing  in  their 
hands  of  all  your  possessions.  You  men  of  the  last 
generation  who  aided  in  laying  the  foundations  of  this 
city,  who  pioneered  into  this  then  wilderness  of  the  West, 
came  poor.  The  children  of  Necessity,  and  nursed  at  her 
rugged  breast,  you  grew  strong  by  the  discipline  of 
Adversity.  It  is  a  school  from  which,  and  properly,  your 
affections  would  spare  your  children ;  but  it  is  by  no 
means  certain  that  the  generation  which  is  born  at  the 
top  of  the  wheel  of  fortune  has  any  real  advantage  over 


BUFFALO    GENERAL   HOSPITAL.  I05 

its  soon  successor  which  shall  be  born  at  the  bottom.  It 
is  at  best  a  mere  question  of  equipage,  and  that  but  for  a 
few  days,  of  a  large  house  or  a  small  one,  of  frescoed 
walls  or  the  ruder  ceilings  which  protected  your  own 
infancy  and  childhood  and  witnessed  your  purest  and 
happiest  days,  of  dangerous  and  troublesome  affluence, 
or  of  safe  dependence  upon  labor.  There  is  both  advan- 
tage and  virtue  in  being  one's  own  executor.  To  "  sleep 
in  blessings  "  after  death  is  well,  but  to  live  in  blessings 
is  better.  It  is  not  so  pure  a  charity  to  dispense  by 
executor  what  we  can  no  longer  hold  as  when  we  become 
almoners  of  our  own  bounty.  A  few  years  since  deceased 
in  the  city  of  New  York  the  possessor  of  the  most  colos- 
sal fortune  ever  achieved  on  this  continent.  By  direction 
of  his  will  his  executors  erected  and  furnished  a  public 
library  upon  a  scale  of  magnificence  worthy  of  the 
metropolis  and  its  merchant  prince.  But  Mr.  Astor 
never  realized  the  pleasure  of  witnessing  its  progress,  nor 
the  still  greater  pleasure,  the  luxury  of  his  own  benefi- 
cence and  the  gratitude  of  his  contemporaries. 

In  the  streets  of  the  same  city  may  be  seen  to-day  an 
unpretending  and  gentle-hearted  but  an  earnest  and  able 
man,  who  has  risen  from  poverty  to  affluence  in  commer- 
cial relations,  who,  appreciating  his  obligations  to  society, 
with  his  own  hand  laid  the  foundation  of  an  institute  which 
he  has  freely  devoted  to  science  and  art,  at  a  cost  of  nearly 
a  half  million  dollars.  He  has  not  only  moulded  and 
perfected  it  to  his  own  mind,  and  secured  his  bounty 
against  contingent  waste  and  destruction  by  bringing  his 
own  sagacity  to  its  management,  but  the  plaudits  of  the 
remotest  posterity  are  anticipated  to  Peter  Cooper  in 
contemporary  gratitude. 

In  another  and  more  remote  city,  McDonough  left  an 
estate  estimated  at  six  million  dollars.  The  cities  of 
8 


I06  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

New  Orleans  and  Baltimore  were  his  principal  legatees. 
An  almost  endless  litigation,  and  depreciation  consequent 
either  upon  the  mismanagement  of  trustees  or  their 
inability  to  exercise  any  judgment  against  the  inflexible 
provisions  of  a  will,  have  so  reduced  this  once  vast  estate 
that  it  is  likely  to  prove  barren  of  any  substantial  advan- 
tage.    These  examples  are  full  of  instruction. 

When  two  or  three  days  since  I  was  invited  to  perform 
this  office,  I  was  admonished  that  but  a  few  minutes  could 
be  spared  to  my  part  of  the  exercises,  and  I  hasten  to 
two  or  three  suggestions  of  a  practical  character  in 
conclusion. 

In  the  first  place,  I  would  remark  that  a  hospital  is  not 
liable  to  any  of  the  objections  which  are  sometimes  made 
to  institutions  for  feeding  and  clothing  the  poor.  While  I 
recognize  the  obligation  of  society  to  make  a  just  pro- 
vision for  its  destitute,  I  know  it  should  be  made  with 
great  discretion.  I  know  it  should  not  be  too  easily  nor 
too  liberally  given,  lest  charity  become  a  mere  bounty  to 
indolence  and  vice.  While  its  inmates  are  generally  of 
the  poorer  classes,  their  cases  are  carefully  scrutinized  and 
it  is  easy  to  prevent  abuse.  Mere  indolence  and  improvi- 
dence can  here  find  no  place. 

A  hospital  of  the  character  of  this  we  to-day  dedicate 
has  its  relations  to  medical  science.  You  already  have  a 
medical  college  of  honorable  distinction  at  which  are 
annually  graduated  a  large  class  of  students  who  go  out 
into  the  world  as  physicians  and  surgeons.  And  with 
many  members  of  that  profession  in  our  city  a^re  private 
students  enjoying  every  advantage  which  can  be  derived 
from  personal  and  professional  worth.  But  clinical  instruc- 
tion, that  is,  by  the  bed-side  of  the  patient,  is  conceded 
to  be  far  superior   to    that    derived    from    books  or    the 


BUFFALO   GENERAL   HOSPITAL.  I07 

lecture-room.  In  the  different  wards  of  a  large  city  hos- 
pital will  be  found  various  diseases  in  all  their  stages,  and 
surgical  cases,  not  only  the  simple  and  ordinary,  but  often 
of  the  most  complex  and  delicate  character.  This  insti- 
tution will  be  dependent  upon  the  medical  profession  of 
the  city  for  visitation,  and  will  open  up  to  their  students 
facilities  for  instruction  which  will  qualify  them  for  real 
usefulness  in  the  world,  to  become  positive,  because  pro- 
fessionally intelligent,  friends  of  their  race. 

And  in  this  connection,  it  will  not  be  deemed  indelicate 
or  invidious  to  say,  that  if  this  hospital,  under  your  pa- 
tronage, shall  grow  to  its  proposed  dimensions,  and  as 
your  city  progresses  in  population  be  filled  with  the  dis- 
eased and  disabled  poor,  it  can  never  outgrow  either  the 
science  or  the  self-sacrificing  charity  of  the  medical  pro- 
fession of  Buffalo,  I  think  I  know  something  of  the 
spirit  which  pervades  that  profession,  and  I  feel  that  I 
can  say  that  while  they  expect,  and  are  entitled  to,  ade- 
quate compensation  for  services  rendered  those  able  to 
reward  them,  its  heart,  its  hand,  its  science,  are  ever 
ready  to  answer  the  calls  of  the  suffering  poor. 

Citizens  of  Buffalo,  the  offering  we  this  day  dedicate,  is 
yours  to  cherish  and  to  place  upon  an  enduring  basis.  It 
is  one  of  the  noblest  that  can  be  brought  into  the  tem- 
ple of  Humanity.  That  temple  is  as  wide  as  the  heavens, 
and  receives  w^ithin  its  portals  every  child  of  affliction  and 
sorrow.  That  charity  which  came  to  earth  an  angel- 
attendant  upon  the  babe  of  Bethlehem,  knows  no  dis- 
tinction of  caste,  complexion  or  nationality.  She  asks 
not  at  what  altar  the  sufferer  worships,  and  before  she 
relieves  does  not  stop  to  inquire  whether  he  even  be  a 
worshiper  at  all.  And  if  she  chance  to  find  him  with- 
out  a  faith   and   without   a  God,  poor  in   soul   as  he  is 


I08  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCEELANTES. 

wretched  in  body,  she  deHghts,  so  far  as  comports  with 
delicacy  and  propriety,  in  the  double  office  of  minister- 
ing to  his  temporal  necessities,  while  with  gentle  guid- 
ance she  points  the  wanderer  "  to  brighter  worlds,  and 
leads  the  way."  I  seem  to  hear  a  voice  coming  up 
through  the  vale  of  the  centuries,  clear  and  resonant, 
"  Go   AND   DO   THOU    LIKEWISE." 


BUFFALO   STATE   INSANE   ASYLUM.  I09 


BUFFALO    STATE    INSANE    ASYLUM. 

Oration  delivered  at  the  Laying  of  the  Corner-stone, 
September  18,  1872. 


Gov.  HoKFMAN,  Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

The  State  has  highly  distinguished  us.  At  an  early 
day  it  selected  Buffalo  for  a  terminal  point  of  its  chief 
commercial  enterprise,  and  so  gave  the  principal  impulse 
towards  those  results  which  constitute  our  local  strength. 
It  has  recently  founded  among  us  an  institution  which 
promises  to  be  an  educator  of  the  public  taste,  a  support 
of  public  virtue,  and  a  wholesome  check  upon  any  tend- 
ency of  our  ambition  or  our  thought  to  the  sensual  and 
material.  To-day  the  State  presents  to  us  another  side 
of  its  broad  nature.  It  invites  us  to  the  grateful  office 
of  laying  the  corner-stone  of  an  edifice  which  through 
all  coming  generations  shall  bring  solace  and  cheer, 
and  often  restoration,  to  thousands  of  our  fellow-beings 
afflicted  with  the  saddest  calamity  that  can  befall  our 
nature.  For  what  is  man,  infinite  though  he  be  in 
faculties,  "  in  action  like  an  angel,  in  apprehension  like 
a  god,"  when  the  divine  image  charactered  in  the  face, 
and  mirrored  in  the  soul,  is  shattered  by  insanity? 

Let  us  assure  to  the  State  that  co-operation  which  it 
has  a  right  to  expect  of  us  as  citizens,  and  accept  full 
loyally  the  unofficial  local  guardianship  of  this  trust. 
And  let  us  especially  pledge  to  it,  and  to  each  other,  that 
in  all  legitimate  ways,  so  far  as  in  us  lies,  we  will  protect 
this  charity  from  an  abuse  which  sometimes  threatens 
every  State  institution. 


no  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

A  curse  of  the  times  is  the  tendency  to  force  every 
public  interest  into  the  pool  of  partisan  politics.  The 
State  charities  belong  pre-eminently  to  the  people.  They 
are  too  catholic  in  their  beneficence,  too  elevated  in  their 
moral  purpose,  to  justify  any  attempt  from  any  quarter 
to  make  the  trusts  connected  with  them  the  rewards  of 
partisanship.  No  governor  appointing,  no  senate  con- 
firming, no  legislature  creating,  no  board  of  managers 
having  an  appointing  power  to  any  place  of  authority  or 
confidence,  should  ever  ask,  or  think,  or  care  what  are 
the  party  relations  of  a  candidate  for  appointment  in  a 
charitable  institution,  except  it  be  to  prevent  the  very 
evil  I  deprecate.  In  God's  name,  let  us  have  one  little 
sacred  spot  in  the  commonwealth  where  the  politician,  in 
character  as  such,  may  not  enter.  Let  him  look  upon  its 
walls  of  exclusion  more  hopelessly  than  ever  banished 
Peri  gazed  upon  the  barred  gates  of  Paradise.  And  let 
that  spot  be  the  domain  of  our  public  charities. 

This  occasion  is  a  vindication  of  our  age  from  a  criticism 
sometimes  made,  and  always  unjust,  because  indiscrim- 
inating.  Our  century  has  had  an  immense  stimulus, 
through  its  discoveries  and  inventions,  to  the  accumula- 
tion of  wealth.  This  has  led  us  sometimes  to  say  that 
money-hunting  is  its  sole  and  universal  occupation.  This 
is  a  partial  view.  The  Nineteenth  Century,  distinguished 
as  it  has  been  by  its  commercial  and  industrial  enterprises, 
and  by  its  passion  for  luxury  and  social  display,  has 
done  more  for  the  elevation  of  the  masses,  more  for  the 
amelioration  of  every  type  of  human  suffering,  than  have 
all  preceding  ages.  Christianity  has  never  been  so  crys- 
talized  in  institutions  which  recognize  the  brotherhood  of 
our  race,  and  discharge  the  duties  that  relation  imposes, 
as  during  this  sharply-criticised  Nineteenth  Century.  Its 
humanity  is  broader,  its  science  more  exact,  its  charity 


BUFFALO   STATE    INSANE   ASYLUM.  Ill 

more  catholic  and  better  regulated  by  the  laws  of  a  sound 
political  economy.  I  am  not  of  those  who  deny  great 
virtues  to  the  Middle  Ages.  While  they  were  ages  of 
intense  ecclesiasticism,  I  know  that  the  power  of  the 
Christian  Church  was  largely  and  potentially  exercised 
to  protect  the  weak  against  the  strong,  and  that  its 
monasteries  were  often  the  homes  of  a  beautiful  piety, 
and  the  dispensers  of  a  charity  sweet  as  the  breath  of 
heaven.  But  those  ages  suffered  from  the  bigotries  which 
always  attend  upon  popular  ignorance.  They  had  little 
science,  and  humanity  had  no  standing-place  when  antag- 
onized by  their  superstitions.  In  nothing  does  this  more 
appear  than  in  their  treatment  of  the  insane.  This  class 
of  unfortunates,  as  a  rule,  were  regarded  as  persons  given 
over  by  God  to  Satan,  and  were  subjected  to  cruel  .tor- 
tures and  often  to  ignominious  death.  If  the  type  of 
disease  took  the  form  of  pious  ecstacy,  the  popular 
superstition  invested  its  victims  with  supernatural  powers, 
and  crowned  them  with  the  honors  of  sainthood.  Later 
ages,  ages  which  have  created  new  eras  in  literature  and 
art,  hardly  improved  on  the  Dark  Ages  in  their  apprecia- 
tion of  the  nature  and  causes  of  insanity,  or  in  their 
treatment  of  its  victims. 

Insanity  was  hardly  studied  at  all  from  the  psycholog- 
ical side  until  late  in  the  eighteenth  century,  and  all  the 
study  of  the  nervous  system  prior  to  about  the  begin- 
ning of  the  present  century  led  to  few  valuable  results  in 
the  treatment  of  the  insane.  The  first  European  depart- 
ure of  which  I  find  any  record  from  the  old  system  of 
dungeons  and  chains  and  savage  keepers,  seemed  to  have 
its  inspiration  in  the  new  humanitarian  thought  of  the 
last  years  of  the  eighteenth  century,  as  much  as  in  an 
advanced  scientific  knowledge.  It  was  in  the  midst  of 
the  French  Revolution,  when  the  French  mind  was  burn- 


112  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

int;-  hot  with  its  passionate  thought  over  tlie  rights  and 
duties  of  man,  that  Pinel  removed  their  chains  from  all 
the  inmates  of  the  Insane  Retreat  of  Paris.  The  horrors 
of  the  Bastile  and  Bicetre  went  down  together  before  the 
storm-blast  of  the  New  Era.  Yet,  strange  to  say,  it  was 
many  years  later  before  English  sensibility  or  science 
grasped  the  new  idea.  Howard  had  initiated  the  move- 
ment which  has  modified  the  whole  prison  system  of 
England  and  the  Continent,  long  before  the  system  of 
brutality  in  the  treatment  of  the  insane  was  modified  by 
English  humanity  and  science.  Of  the  celebrated  York 
Asylum,  the  British  Foreign  and  Medical  Reviezv  says  that 
"  it  was  for  the  period  of  thirty-seven  years,  from  1777  to 
1 8 14,  the  scene  of  every  abuse  that  rapacity  and  inhu- 
manity could  crowd  into  a  single  institution."  The  de- 
tails I  have  myself  read  in  parliamentary  reports  on  the 
condition  of  the  insane,  as  a  rule,  in  English  hospitals 
as  late  as  18 15,  are  as  shocking  and  revolting  as  a  story 
of  the  middle  passage  of  a  slave-ship.  Imagine  the  ab- 
sence of  every  element  of  kindness,  and  the  presence  of 
every  indecency  and  cruelty,  and  we  may  faintly  grasp 
the  situation.  Religion  and  science  at  length  struck 
hands  over  the  monstrous  wickedness  of  the  old  system, 
and  began  the  long-needed  revolution.  I  say  religion, 
for  what  is  humanity  but  that  love  which,  as  a  golden 
chain,  binds  the  heart  of  man  to  the  heart  of  God  ;  and 
what  is  that  love  but  religion  ? 

Contemporaneous  with  the  abolition  of  the  brutal 
penal  codes  of  England,  and  with  almost  every  public 
and  private  movement  to  humanize  her  labor  system,  be- 
gan the  efforts  of  Tuke  and  Conolly,  and  others  eminent 
as  physicians  and  philanthropists,  to  banish  from  English 
insane  asylums  the  whole  horrible  troop  of  chains  and 
scourgings    and   dungeons    and  cruel   keepers,  which  for 


BUFFALO   STATE    INSANE   ASYLUM.  II3 

ages  had  been  associated  with  the  treatment  of  this  class 
of  unfortunates  in  Enghmd.  In  the  York  Retreat,  under 
Tuke,  at  the  Lincohi  Asylum,  at  Hanwell,  under  Con- 
oily,  and  in  the  new  asylums  founded  by  the  better 
inspirations  of  science  and  humanity,  were  substituted 
for  the  old  methods,  humane  and  learned  medical  attend- 
ance, and  every  soothing  influence  that  can  give  repose 
to  minds  o'erthrown.  Music,  recreating  grounds  and  gar- 
dens, cheerful  and  wholesome  occupation,  gentle  nursing, 
and  authority  considerate  and  kind,  however  absolute. 
Freedom  of  person  was  substituted  for  the  restraints 
which  were  before  universal.  In  short,  moral  and  social 
methods  of  treatment  began  to  supersede  the  system  of 
cruelty  and  force.  Yet  this  reform  had  slow  progress. 
As  late  as  1850,  parliamentary  reports  reveal  the  exist- 
ence of  many  of  the  old  abuses  in  some  of  the  older 
institutions. 

Insanity  is  now  conceded  to  be  a  curable  disease  in 
about  seventy  per  cent,  of  the  cases  properly  treated  in 
its  first  stages.  Once  taken  out  of  the  domain  of  super- 
stition, where  it  so  long  dwelt  with  diabolism  and  witch- 
craft, science  was  prepared  to  study  it  as  any  other  type 
of  disease,  and  to  arrive  at  its  relations  and  character  by 
investigation,  the  only  method  by  which  man  can  learn 
anything  with  exactness  of  phenomena  relating  to  the 
material  universe,  or  to  the  complex  human  body.  Sci- 
ence made  an  immense  advance  when  it  arrived  at  the 
fact  that  the  mind  itself — that  divine  spark  struck  out  of 
Infinite  Life — is  incapable  of  disease  ;  that  the  disease 
is  in  the  brain,  the  medium  through  which  the  will  ex- 
presses its  volitions  and  the  mind  its  thought.  It  is  the 
result  of  morbid  relations  in  the  material  organization. 
This  ascertained,  science,  in  investigating  the  nature  and 
remedies   of   insanity,  directs   its   attention   to   the  brain 


I  14  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

and  nervous  system.  How  wide  is  the  field  here  pre- 
sented for  scientific  research.  Important  as  have  been 
the  discoveries  in  the  domain  of  the  nervous  system,  and 
much  as  those  discoveries  have  led  to  the  amelioration 
of  human  suffering,  whole  continents  seem  yet  terrae 
incognitae. 

Must  this  ever  be,  or  will  some  future  discoverer  lay 
hold  of  the  secret  of  nature  in  this  mysterious  realm,  as 
the  great  electrician  seized  upon  the  subtle  principle  of 
the  atmosphere,  making  it  the  swift  messenger  of  our 
thoughts  around  the  world  ?  They  who  have  suffered 
from  the  diseases  of  those  myriad,  delicate,  invisible 
signal-stations  of  the  human  body  we  call  nerves,  who 
have  carried  their  life  for  years  as  they  who  scarce  have 
life  at  all,  will  pray  for  his  coming.  Crowns  and  statues 
await  the  new  Morse. 

My  brief  review  shows  that  public  sentiment  on  our 
general  subject  has  been  a  slow  growth.  I  freely  recognize 
our  obligations  to  eminent  members  of  the  medical  pro- 
fession in  the  Old  World  and  the  New,  for  their  labors 
in  this  field,  but  there  are  one  or  two  unprofessional 
names  so  identified  with  the  advanced  sentiment  in  the 
United  States,  that  they  should  not  be  forgotten  on  this 
occasion. 

Shall  I  begin  and  end  with  the  name  of  a  woman  ? 
Where  else  should  I  begin,  if  sacrificing  philanthropy  in 
our  day,  in  any  department  of  humane  endeavors,  were 
my  theme  ?  It  is  strictly  true,  that  a  woman  inaugurated 
the  revolution,  which,  so  far  as  seems  possible,  has  hu- 
manized war.  Florence  Nightingale,  by  the  valor  of 
goodness,  eclipsed  all  the  martial  heroisms  of  the  Crimea. 
Not  a  campaign  has  been  fought  in  Europe  or  America, 
since  the  fall  of  Sebastopol,  where  the  spirit  of  that  great- 


BUFFALO   STATE   INSANE   ASYLUM.  II5 

hearted   English  woman  has  not  planted   the  standard  of 
humanity  amid  the  smoke  and  carnage  of  battle. 
But 

" peace  hath  her  victories 

No  less  renowned  than  war." 

I  do  not  know  in  the  history  of  modern  philanthropy 
a  higher  illustration  of  the  power  in  society  of  true  wo- 
manhood than  is  afforded  in  the  career  of  Miss  Dix,  of 
Massachusetts. 

This  gentle-hearted  woman,  touched  by  the  needs  and 
sufferings  of  the  insane,  resolved  to  appeal  to  the  people 
and  governments  of  both  hemispheres  in  their  behalf. 
Invested  with  no  authority  save  that  which  belongs  to  a 
self-renouncing  nature,  she  awakened  a  new  and  profound 
interest  in  almost  every  State  of  our  Union,  in  the  fed- 
eral congress  and  in  European  cabinets,  in  behalf  of  the 
insane.  She  sought  a  mission  of  gracious  ministry  to 
others,  and  found  it  at  her  door.     So  true  is  it  that  while 

"  The  primal  duties  shine  aloft,  like  stars, 
The  charities  that  heal  and  soothe  and  bless, 
Are  scattered  at  the  feet  of  man,  like  flowers." 

More  than  one  asylum  for  the  insane  has  been  erected 
through  her  persuasion.  Congress,  yielding  to  her  never- 
flagging  importunity,  passed  an  act  appropriating  ten  mil- 
lion acres  of  the  public  domain  for  hospital  purposes  for 
the  insane.  This  beneficent  measure  received  the  presi- 
dential veto  on  the  ground  of  unconstitutionality.  Now- 
adays congress  votes  fifty  million  acres  to  a  single  private 
corporation  having  no  other  object — I  do  not  say  it 
is  not  an  adequate  one — than  pecuniary  gain.  And  such 
an  act,  at  almost  every  session,  passes  through,  or  over, 
or  under  the  constitution,  like  a  conquering  army  with 
banners  and  drum-beat. 


Il6  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

Cognate  to  our  theme  is  idiocy,  and  I  deem  it  a  matter 
of  just  pride  that  our  State  was  the  first  to  act  upon  the 
new  idea  that  idiocy  is  not  an  impenetrable  darkness,  and 
that  its  pitiable  victims  may,  by  kindness  and  patient 
instruction,  be  led,  at  least  into  the  starlight  of  human 
intelligence. 

And  here  I  am  again  impressed  with  a  sense  of  the 
vast  service  rendered  the  world  by  individual  men  and 
women,  who,  solitary  and  alone,  "  circumnavigate  the 
globe  of  charity." 

It  is  about  twenty-four  years  since  Dr.  Henry  W. 
Wilbur,  then  of  Barre,  Massachusetts,  entered  upon  the 
pioneership  of  the  then  forlorn  hope,  in  this  country,  of 
educating  idiots,  "  sustained  in  the  good  work,"  to  use 
the  words  of  Dr.  Seguin,  "  against  the  forebodings  and 
ridicule  of  friends  and  neighbors,  only  by  the  bravery  of 
his  wife." 

Dr.  Wilbur  is  now  superintendent  of  the  New  York 
State  Asylum  for  Idiots,  at  Syracuse,  the  first  in  the 
world  built  expressly  for  that  class,  and  deeply  interesting 
in  its  character  and  purposes  to  every  philanthropic  mind. 

"  The  world  moves,"  but  how  slow  !  The  psycholog- 
ical side  of  the  Science  of  Medicine  has  been  strangely 
neglected  in  our  medical  colleges.  It  was  a  surprise  to 
me  that  the  distinguished  president  of  the  New  York 
State  Medical  Society,  and  now  president  of  this  institu- 
tion, could,  in  his  inaugural  address  in  1870,  say  that  the 
teaching  of  psychology  in  medical  colleges,  as  a  part  of 
the  course,  was  "  a  step  yet  to  be  taken."  If  any  dis- 
eases should  be  studied  clinically,  they  are  the  most 
subtle  of  all,  the  diseases  of  the  brain.  Fifty  years  ago, 
Esquirol,  in  Paris,  so  instructed  his  pupils  in  that  spe- 
cialty. Questions  of  property  and  life,  of  criminal  intent 
or  innocence  under  morbid  conditions,  are  constantly  aris- 


BUFFALO   STATE   INSANE   ASYLUM.  11/ 

ing  in  our  courts,  and  determined  by  the  testimony  of 
physicians.  If  they  be  ignorant  where  they  should  be 
wise,  the  innocent  may  hang  and  the  guilty  go  free.  No 
physician  should  be  permitted  to  shield  his  ignorance 
behind  a  diploma  and  imperil  in  the  courts  the  property 
or  the  freedom  or  the  life  of  a  citizen.  We  will  hope  the 
"step  forward  "  will  soon  be,  if  not  already,  taken. 

The  number  of  the  insane  in  the  United  States  is 
greater  than  in  any  other  country  except,  perhaps,  Eng- 
land. It  is  about  one  to  a  thousand  of  our  population, 
and  some  statistics  give  it  as  one  in  seven  hundred  and 
twenty-eight.  Comparative  statistics  of  the  disease  in 
different  countries  demonstrate  that  insanity  is  a  part  of 
the  price  we  pay  for  our  Western  civilization.  It  is  com- 
paratively unknown  in  the  East.  The  immobility  of  the 
Oriental  peoples,  their  systems  of  caste  which  force  every 
generation  to  trundle  its  monotonous  life  in  ancestral 
grooves,  lead  to  an  individual  and  national  calm,  the  com- 
plete contrast  of  our  ceaseless  agitation.  It  is  a  disease 
provoked  by  causes  which  powerfully  affect  the  nervous 
organization.  Contemplate  for  a  moment  our  American 
life.  The  business  of  the  country  is  an  Atlantic  of  storm, 
which  scarce  knows  repose.  We  buy,  we  sell,  we  tear 
down,  we  build  up  ;  we  put  girdles  round  the  globe,  as  if 
our  time  were  but  an  hour  and  eternal  destiny  hung  upon 
these  material  issues.  With  our  rapid  successes,  which 
will  try  the  brain  of  the  stoutest,  and  our  as  sudden 
reverses,  toppling  in  a  day  the  stateliest  pile  that  energy 
and  opportunity  can  rear,  what  must  be  the  wear  and 
tear  of  that  central  force  which  is  at  once  the  driving- 
wheel  and  motive  power  of  our  business  activity — the 
nervous  system  ?  The  Cretans  designated  their  good 
days  with  a  white  mark.  It  was  reserved  for  us  to  invent 
Black  Fridays.     Every  secular  day  in  the  year  is  "  black  " 


Il8  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

for  somebody.      Every  day  of  the  year  somebody's  brain 
reels. 

Splendid  as  is  our  civilization,  insanity  and  intemper- 
ance— its  foremost  proximate  cause — are  its  dark  sliadows 
which  follow  its  march  with  ever-deepening  gloom  where- 
ever  it  goes.  They  appear  at  our  firesides,  at  our  altars, 
and  in  our  most  sacred  seats,  like  the  skeletons  at  the 
Egyptian  feasts,  as  if  to  mock  us.  These  features  of  our 
Western  life  impose  peculiar  obligations. 

Man  is  the  creature  of  society.  It  envelops  him  as  an 
atmosphere,  and  he  cannot  escape  its  mutualities  and 
responsibilities.  No  man  liveth  to  himself,  and  no  man 
dieth  to  himself.  We  are  bound  together  in  this  com- 
munity life,  and  not  a  member  of  the  vast  confraternity 
can  be  diseased  and  the  whole  body  not  suffer.  We  take 
our  civilization  cum  onere,  and  our  society  with  all  its 
obligations.  These  obligations  towards  those  disabled  by 
disease  do  not  begin  and  end  with  the  actual  insane. 
Insanity  has  a  large  kindred.  Statistics  reveal  the  fact 
that  a  considerable  percentage  of  our  insane  become  such 
through  intemperance,  while  multitudes  from  the  same 
cause  become  as  useless  to  themselves  and  the  public  as 
if  they  had  reached  the  last  stages  of  dementia.  Among 
the  later  discoveries  of  medical  science  is  the  fact  that 
habitual  inebriety  is  a  disease,  sometimes  hereditary, 
sometimes  brought  on  by  indulgence  without  hereditary 
tendencies.  Once  established  to  be  a  disease  which 
palsies  the  will  and  leaves  its  victim  helpless  in  the  hands 
of  its  foe,  and  further  established  that,  except  in  cases  of 
confirmed  drunkenness,  it  is  in  a  majority  of  instances  a 
curable  disease,  and  further  established  that  inebriate 
asylums  wisely  administered  meet  all  the  conditions  for 
restoration  in  cases  seasonably  committed  to  their  care,  it 


BUFFALO   STATE   INSANE   ASYLUM.  I  I9 

follows  that  such  institutions  are  a  necessity  and  should 
be  provided. 

I  know  no  reason,  where  the  conditions  I  have  named 
obtain,  which  justifies  the  founding  of  institutions  for  the 
insane  which  is  not  equally  applicable  to  institutions  for 
the  restoration  of  inebriates.  If  inebriety  leads  to  insan- 
ity or  to  any  other  form  of  destructive  disease,  why  should 
the  public  interest  not  rise  to  the  exigency? 

Do  we  say  the  evils  to  the  victims  of  intemperance  are 
divine  judgments  and  society  should  not  interfere  to  break 
their  force  ?  That  principle  would  empty  every  alms- 
house and  asylum  of  a  large  portion  of  their  occupants. 

We  have  vices  in  our  midst  which  are  paralyzing  the 
energies  of  vast  multitudes  of  our  people,  mortgaging 
future  generations  to  imbecility,  to  insanity,  to  premature 
death.  It  seems  the  duty  of  the  State  to  invoke  science 
and  philanthropy  to  resist  those  evils  which  weaken  its 
strength  by  deteriorating  its  citizenship. 

The  principle  is  now  fully  recognized  that  the  insane 
are  the  wards  of  the  State.  This  makes  the  State  their 
guardian  with  all  the  duties  and  obligations  of  that  sacred 
relation.  The  care  of  the  insane  in  asylums  is  neces- 
sarily developed  upon  officials  and  subordinate  attendants, 
and  it  follows  that  persons  entrusted  with  such  care  can- 
not suffer  from  abuse  or  neglect,  or  from  the  want  of 
suitable  apartments  and  appointments  in  public  or  private 
asylums,  or  in  county  alms-houses,  without  public  shame 
and  dishonor.  The  first  want  in  our  own  State,  it  appears 
to  me,  is  the  creation,  substantially  as  exists  in  England 
and  in  the  State  of  Iowa,  of  a  board  of  commissioners 
in  lunacy,  whose  duty  it  should  be  annually  to  visit  every 
public  and  private  asylum  and  to  report  to  the  legislature 
their  condition  and  that   of  their  inmates,  and  their  own 


I20  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

action.  They  should  h.u'c  hirgc  powers,  and  all  charges 
o(  cruclt)'  and  needless  detention  against  asylum  officials 
or  attendants  should  be  probed  by  the  board  to  the  bot- 
tom, and  if  sustained  by  proof,  the  punishment  and 
remed\-  should  be  swift  and  without  fear  or  favor. 

The  want  of  such  a  board  is  now  met  by  special  com- 
mittees to  meet  special  occasions,  appointed  by  the  gov- 
ernor. That  duty  has  recently  been  discharged  by 
Governor  Hoffman  in  a  way  that  leaves  nothing  to  be 
desired.  Such  board,  as  does  this  committee  to  which  I 
have  alluded,  should  represent  the  purest  personal  char- 
acter, large  capacity,  and,  in  part,  the  highest  learning  of 
the  medical  profession. 

Some  of  the  most  important  reforms  in  insane  asylums 
in  England  and  in  this  country  have  grown  out  of  the 
exposure  of  abuses,  such  exposures  sometimes  being 
made  by  legislative  committees,  sometimes  by  accident, 
sometimes  by  the  alleged  impertinence  of  parties  sus- 
pecting wrong.  Abuses  in  lunatic  asylums  have  no  claim 
upon  the  public  indulgence,  and  the  public  are  ever  grate- 
ful for  their  disclosure,  come  how  they  may. 

With  the  soundest  legislation,  abuses  of  administration 
will  sometimes  creep  into  charitable  institutions  officered 
by  the  best  character,  through  the  carelessness,  cruelty 
or  cupidity  of  subordinates.  Now  this  brings  me  to 
remark  that  there  are  abuses  of  administration  in  the 
lesser  details  of  such  institutions  which  often  create  the 
greatest  suffering  of  their  inmates. 

"  Allow  not  nature  more  than  nature  needs, 
Man's  life  is  cheap  as  beast's." 

A  Regan  and  a  Goneril  can  feed  Lear,  and  house  him, 
but  it  is  Cordelia,  with  heaven-bestowed  restoration  on 
her  lips,  that  cures  the  great  breach  in  his  nature.     Kind- 


BUFFALO    STATE   INSANE   ASYLUM.  121 

ness,  sympathy,  delicate  attentions,  are  a  prime  necessity 
in  such  institutions.  In  my  judgment,  the  kitchen,  the 
linen,  and  the  wardrobe  departments  in  every  general 
hospital,  of  every  orphan  asylum,  and  of  every  insane 
asylum,  should  be  under  the  supervision  of  a  local  resident 
visiting  board  of  ladies,  with  absolute  power  of  removal 
of  every  subordinate  in  those  departments  found  disquali- 
fied in  any  respect.  There  is  no  substitute  for  woman's 
instinct  of  the  fitness  of  things  in  such  relations,  nor  for 
her  sympathetic  heart  in  all  that  pertains  to  the  comfort 
of  children  and  the  sick. 

Cupidity  and  hate  sometimes  figure  in  startling  trage- 
dies connected  with  insane  asylums.  The  cases  I  believe 
are  rare,  but  a  single  instance  of  an  abuse  of  the  forms 
of  law  to  minister  to  those  passions,  coming  to  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  public,  never  fails  to  arouse  its  vindictive 
indignation. 

The  possibility  of  the  confinement  of  persons  as  insane 
who  are  not  insane,  should  be  prevented  by  the  most 
vigilant  scrutiny  and  the  most  careful  legislation.  Do 
the  laws  of  our  own  State  afford  adequate  protection 
against  such  abuses  ?  After  a  careful  comparison  of  our 
statutes  with  those  of  Massachusetts  and  of  Iowa  and 
Illinois,  relating  to  the  insane,  I  am  clear  that  our  laws,  so 
far  as  they  relate  to  the  commitment  to  asylums,  public 
or  private,  need  some  additional  safeguards. 

All  judicial  proceedings  preliminary  to  commitment, 
should  be  before  a  judge  of  a  court  of  record. 

A  trial  of  the  question  of  insanity,  either  before  a  jury 
or  before  a  county  board  of  commissioners,  should  be  had 
whenever  requested  by  the  party  sought  to  be  committed. 

Provision  for  such  trial  should  be  made  after  a  certain 
period  of  detention  in  an  asylum  if  requested  by  the 
party. 

9 


122  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

Under  proper  rct]^uIations  parties  sliould  be  free  to 
write,  seal  and  mail  letters  and  to  receive  sealed  letters. 

Violations  of  requirements  of  the  statute  and  all  abuse 
of  patients  should  be  made  misdemeanors. 

The  States  of  Illinois  and  Iowa  have  recently  carefully 
revised  their  laws  relating  to  the  insane  and  insane 
asylums,  and  could  be  profitably  consulted  in  the  event 
of  any  revision  of  our  own  statutes. 

A  brief  reference  to  the  history  of  our  own  State 
asylums  is  appropriate.  Our  first  insane  asylum  was  the 
"New  York,"  made  ready  for  use  in  1791.  Here  was 
soon  inaugurated  a  policy  which  practically  excluded  the 
insane  poor  of  the  State,  and  scattered  them  among  the 
jails,  prisons  and  workhouses  of  their  respective  counties, 
so  entailing  untold  misery  for  nearly  half  a  century. 

Bloomingdale  Asylum  was  completed  in  182 1.  In  1827 
some  relief  was  afforded  by  an  act  of  the  legislature  pro- 
hibiting the  further  confinement  of  the  insane  in  prisons 
and  houses  of  correction.  They  were  then  transferred  to 
the  county  poorhouses.  Here  neglect  and  cruelty  were 
the  rule— I  speak  of  that  early  day — and  they  lived  and 
died  with  little  of  that  careful  medical  attendance  and 
that  kindness  without  which  there  can  be  no  reasonable 
hope  of  restoration. 

In  1830,  the  deplorable  want  of  the  insane  poor  of  the 
State  attracted  the  attention  of  some  of  the  most  benev- 
olent citizens  in  and  out  of  the  legislature,  who,  co-oper- 
ating with  some  of  the  most  eminent  of  the  medical 
profession,  did  much  to  awake  the  public  interest  on  the 
general  question.  A  few  years  later  the  State  asylum  at 
Utica  was  founded  in  pursuance  of  the  new  policy,  an 
institution  which,  under  its  present  eminent  superintend- 
ent and  his  predecessor,  has  been  an  infinite  blessing  to 
thousands. 


BUFFALO   STATE   INSANE   ASYLUiM.  1 23 

The  lc<jislaturc  recently  made  an  appropriation  of 
$150,000  for  an  insane  hospital  to  be  located  in  Orange 
county,  to  be  under  the  charge  of  the  homeopathic 
school  of  medicine. 

In  1865  the  legislature  provided  for  the  erection  of  the 
Willard  Asylum  for  the  Chronic  Pauper  Insane,  located  at 
Ovid.  In  1867  an  additional  asylum  was  founded  at 
Poughkeepsie.  In  1869,  to  meet  the  pressing  exigencies 
of  the  western  part  of  the  State,  the  legislature  provided 
for  the  erection  of  an  asylum  west  of  Utica,  and  ap- 
pointed five  commissioners  to  select  a  suitable  site  in  the 
eighth  judicial  district.  That  commission  was  composed 
of  eminent  members  of  the  medical  profession,  who  at  an 
early  day  entered  upon  their  labors.  The  generous  ap- 
preciation of  this  enterprise  by  different  sections  of  the 
district  presents  as  honorable  a  chapter  in  the  history  of 
Western  New  York  as  ever  was  written.  Lockport,  West- 
field  and  Warsaw,  particularly,  offered  inducements  to  the 
State  which  filled  the  full  measure  of  a  noble  generosity. 
The  final  selection  of  Buffalo  for  the  site  was  not  owing 
to  any  pecuniary  inducements  to  the  State  which  out- 
rivaled those  of  its  neighbors.  The  more  ample  appoint- 
ments secured  in  a  large  town,  and  the  facility  of  access, 
a  prime  consideration  in  the  location  of  a  lunatic  asylum, 
by  the  concentration  of  railroads  from  all  points  at  this 
general  center,  alone  determined  the  location.  The 
asylum  is  to  be  built  upon  the  basis  for  the  accommoda- 
tion of  five  hundred  patients.  Modeled  to  embrace  the 
latest  improvements  in  the  best  asylums  of  Europe  and 
this  country,  it  is  believed  it  will  be  an  advance  over  all 
existing  institutions  for  the  insane  in  its  provisions  for 
their  comfort  and  health.  Certainly  it  should  be,  for  it 
has  all  past  experience  for  a  guide.  Its  two  hundred 
acres  of  ground  afford  ample  space  for  recreation,  and  for 


124  ADDRESSES   AND   MISCELLANIES. 

those  occupations  whicli  arc  essential  to  insane  patients, 
mechanical,  agricultural  and  horticultural.  This  location 
secures  a  great  essential,  privacy — the  means  of  shielding 
the  inmates  of  the  asylum  from  the  rude  gaze  of  the 
unsympathizing  and  curious.  Religion,  literature,  music, 
art,  and  social  joy,  will  here,  we  trust,  be  invoked  to  calm, 
to  soothe  and  to  heal.  Here,  by  the  shore  of  one  of  the 
most  magnificent  rivers  that  God  has  given  as  a  type  of 
His  majesty,  in  view  of  that  expanse  of  waters  which, 
stretching  out  into  sea  after  sea,  floats  a  comixierce  that 
might  well  represent  the  industry  of  an  empire  ;  amid  a 
retirement  on  these  broad  and  secluded  acres  which 
invites  the  most  weary  to  rest,  and  natures  the  most 
discordant  by  disease,  to  the  harmonies  that  flow  from 
health  and  gentle  nurture — may  this  asylum,  through  all 
ages  to  come,  be  a  beneficence  and  a  glory ! 

Nothing  new  and  valuable  establishes  itself.  Somebody 
must  do  the  initiatory  hard  work.  The  establishment  of 
an  insane  asylum  in  Western  New  York  was  no  excep- 
tion to  this  rule.  It  is  simple  justice  to  refer  to  the 
most  active  instrumentality. 

I  know  I  express  a  universal  sentiment  among  those 
familiar  with  the  facts,  when  I  say  that  to  Dr.  James  P. 
White,  the  president  of  the  asylum,  are  the  public  speci- 
ally indebted  for  his  unremitting  labors  at  home  and 
abroad,  in  season  and  out  of  season,  to  secure  this  grand 
result.  He  was  most  ably  seconded  by  Dr.  Gray,  of  the 
Utica  Insane  Asylum,  who,  better  than  any  other  man, 
from  his  position,  could  appreciate  the  necessity  of  an 
asylum  in  this  district.  Senator  Nichols  rendered  valuable 
aid  in  carrying  through  the  necessary  legislation,  and  it  is 
the  word  of  those  who  best  should  know  that  Mr.  Joseph 
Warren  was  an  important  coadjutor  throughout.  Others 
might  be  named,  for  the   response  was   almost    as    uni- 


BUFFALO   STATE    INSANE   ASYLUM.  1 25 

versal  as  the  appeal.  The  medical  faculty  throughout 
the  district  gave  a  hearty  co-operation  to  the  movement. 

Our  subject  has  led  us  to  observe  the  important  rela- 
tions of  science  to  institutions  for  the  insane.  While  we 
recognize  our  obligations  in  that  direction,  we  will  not 
forget  that  this  and  kindred  charities  draw  their  best 
inspirations  from  yet  higher  sources. 

Nineteen  centuries  ago  was  floating  through  the  sacred 
literature  of  the  Hebrews,  a  principle  of  action  overlaid 
by  the  ceremonial  and  dwarfed  by  the  exclusive  spirit  of 
that  marvelous  people.  It  needed  but  to  be  recast,  and 
transferred  from  a  race  to  mankind,  to  become  a  regene- 
rating force  in  human  societies.  Jesus  so  rescued  it — 
vitalized  it  by  His  own  personality  and  life,  and  committed 
it  to  the  soil  of  the  decaying  pagan  civilizations.  That 
seminal  principle  has  grown  to  a  mighty  tree,  ever  fruiting 
with  institutions  which  are  the  glory  both  of  Hebrew  and 
Christian. 

Let  this  day's  proceedings  strengthen  our  hope  in  the 
future  of  humanity.  The  motive  power  of  all  true  social 
amelioration  is  love ;  and  with  communities  and  States, 
as  with  individuals,  love  fulfills,  crowns  with  completeness, 
the  law. 


126  ADDRESSES  AND   MISCELLANIES. 


THE    NEW    BUFFALO    ARMORY. 

Oration  delivered  at  the  Dedicatory  Exercises, 
Fekruary  24,  1868. 


It  is  a  grateful  office  to  dedicate  offerings  to  Charity 
and  Benevolence.  It  is  a  grateful  office  to  identify  our- 
selves with  institutions  that  are  the  outgrowth  of  the 
public  peace,  and  that  illustrate  and  adorn  the  Golden 
Age  of  society.  Would  to  God  that  all  the  future  victo- 
ries of  our  country  were  to  be  the  victories  of  Peace ! 
Would  to  God  that  the  promised  day  had  dawned  when 
every  sword,  however  gallantly  borne,  could  be  safely 
beaten  into  plowshares,  and  every  spear  into  pruning- 
hooks,  when  nation  should  not  lift  up  sword  any  more 
against  nation,  and  the  art  of  war,  with  all  its  pomp  and 
circumstance,  should  be  forever  forgotten. 

Blessed  that  day,  and  happy  the  generation  that  shall 
see  lifted  from  their  shoulders  a  burthen  under  which 
millions  are  now  groaning — a  burthen  which  crushes  the 
labor  of  Europe  to  the  earth,  and  drains  the  blood  of  its 
youth  to  cement  and  solidify  imperial  dynasties. 

But,  unhappily,  that  day  seems  far  remote,  and  until 
the  nature  of  man  is  changed,  so  long  as  pride,  selfish- 
ness, and  love  of  aggrandizement  and  supremacy  charac- 
terize nationality,  that  nation  makes  a  fatal  mistake 
which,  listening  to  the  pleasant  song  of  peace,  folds  its 
arms  in  security  and  forgets  that  its  strength  rests,  not  in 
the  forbearance  of  its  neighbors,  but  in  its  power  to  com- 
mand justice  and  to  punish  outrage.     You  would  think 


THE   NEW   BUFFALO   ARMORY.  1 27 

mc  insensible  if,  during  my  absence,  covering  the  entire 
period  of  our  unhappy  war,  I  had  not  often  borne  a  heavy 
heart  when  tidings  of  national  anguish  and  defeat  came  to 
me  from  over  the  sea.  You  would  judge  me  rightly,  l^ut 
the  saddest  hour  of  all  that  long  agony,  was  not  after 
tidings  of  battle  disaster,  distressing  as  often  they  were, 
for  they  had  their  consolations.  Brave  souls  had  gone 
down  to  dusty  death,  but  they  had  left  their  heroic  exam- 
ple, and  imparted  an  unfading  glory  to  the  American 
name.  They  had  fallen,  too,  in  a  cause  worthy  the  blood 
of  heroes,  the  cause  of  republican  nationality,  the  cause 
of  human  liberty  all  over  the  globe.  The  saddest  hour 
to  me  of  all  that  four  years'  struggle,  was  when  I  sat  a  lis- 
tener in  the  house  of  parliament,  to  the  declaration  of 
Lord  Palmerston,  then  at  the  head  of  the  government, 
that  the  demand  for  the  surrender  of  Mason  and  Slidell 
had  gone  forth,  and  that  to  back  it  an  army  was  already 
on  the  seas,  and  that  refusal  would  be  followed  by  war. 
I  knew,  as  the  Palmerston  ministry  knew ;  I  knew,  as  the 
British  aristocracy  exultingly  knew,  that  we  were  in  no 
position  then  to  resist  a  demand  to  undo  an  act  which 
was  in  conformity  with  numerous  precedents  during  two 
hundred  years  of  English  naval  supremacy.  For  Eng- 
land, and  I  speak  the  truth  of  history,  has  been  her  own 
maker  of  international  law,  and  her  way  has  been  her 
will. 

Never  shall  I  forget  the  words  of  the  London  Times 
in  reply  to  arguments  of  American  statesmen  justifying 
the  arrest  by  English  precedents.  "  We  know  we  have 
done  many  wrong  things  in  times  past,  but  we  were 
always  able  to  fight  them  through."  Yes,  gentlemen, 
that  was  the  saddest  hour,  for  it  revealed  to  me  the  ina- 
bility of  the  country,  with  its  gigantic  civil  war  on  its 
hands,  to  meet  its  enemy  at  the  gate  and  defy  its  armies 


128  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

aiul  navies.  I  did  think,  I  confess,  of  the  ex'ijosed  i)()si- 
tion  of  our  city,  and  I  knew  that  there  were  many  chances 
that  its  material  splendor  and  power  would  be  the  first 
victims  of  a  war  between  the  two  countries.  But  it  was 
the  sense  of  humiliation  that  was  most  hard  to  bear. 
That  my  country  was  scoffed  for  her  weakness,  that  she 
was  so  trammeled  by  her  internal  troubles  that  she  could 
not  command  even  courtesy  from  a  haughty  power,  but 
she  must  bear  the  word  and  take  the  blow  together! 
Yes,  I  saw  the  leader  of  the  English  government  covered 
with  huzzas  when  he  contrasted  our  supposed  weakness 
with  British  strength,  and  pointed  toward  his  armed  fleet 
which  was  expected  to  carry  devastation  to  our  cities  and 
ruin  to  our  nationality. 

Gentlemen,  count  on  me  henceforth  as  accepting,  in  all 
its  fullness,  the  maxim,  "  In  peace  prepare  for  war." 

Gentlemen,  we  were  saying  that  it  was  a  grateful  office, 
the  most  grateful,  to  dedicate  the  offerings  of  Peace. 

To-night  we  have  come  to  dedicate  an  offering  for 
Peace,  but  to  War. 

It  seems  proper  that  some  details  of  the  history  of  the 
Seventy-fourth  Regiment,  for  whose  use  this  armory  has 
been  erected  by  the  county,  should  be  here  given. 

The  Seventy-fourth  Regiment  was  organized  in  1854, 
with  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  men,  and  with  the  fol- 
lowing field  and  staff  officers : 

Field  and  Staff  Officers. — John  M.  Griffith,  Colonel ; 
John  H.  Bliss,  Lieutenant  Colonel;  Watson  A.  Fox,  Major; 
William  F.  Rogers,  Acting  Adjutant;  Harvey  M.  Mixer,  En- 
gineer; Rev.  M.  L.  R.  P.  Thompson,  D.  D.,  Chaplain ;  Thomas 
F.  Rochester,  Surgeon;  Lewis  P.  Dayton,  Assistant  Surgeon; 
Frank  Ritter,  Quartermaster;  James  D.  Sawyer,  Paymaster. 

Line  Officers. — Captains :  Robert  Cottier,  David  Tuttle, 
William  F.  Rogers,  Daniel  D.  Bidwell,  Michael  Bailey,  Edwin 


THE   NEW    BUFFALO   ARMORY.  1 29 

Bishop,  William  H.  Drew,  Alexander  Sloan.  Lieutenants: 
John  F.  Wage,  C.  F.  Sternberg,  John  McManus,  Allen  M. 
Adams,  George  W.  Johnson,  E.  R.  P.  Shurley,  W.  Dumont, 
Horace  Wing,  Jr.,  John  Peterson,  Frank  Gaven,  Samuel  C. 
Green,  Hugh  Sloan. 

Colonel  Griffith  resigned  in  May,  1856,  when  Colonel 
Watson  A.  Fox  was  elected  in  his  stead,  who  held  the 
office  from  that  time  until  some  period  in  1864. 

Fully  appreciating  its  mission  during  the  years  when 
war  seemed  infinitely  remote,  it  devoted  itself  to  regular 
militar}'  habits  of  exercise  and  drill,  and  thoroughly 
prepared  itself  for  any  national  exigency  that  might  arise. 

When  civil  war  became  imminent,  and  the  first  call 
was  made  by  the  president  for  75,000  men,  Colonel  Fox, 
in  May,  1862,  tendered  the  services  of  the  regiment  to 
the  governor  of  the  State,  it  then  numbering  eight 
hundred,  officers  and  men.  The  services  so  tendered  were 
accepted,  and  it  was  ordered  to  leave  for  Washington  on 
the  first  day  of  May,  1862.  Much  to  the  disappointment 
of  the  regiment  this  order  was  countermanded  just  on 
the  eve  of  their  departure.  Colonel  Fox,  accompanied  by 
Honorable  N.  K.  Hall  and  Honorable  E.  G.  Spaulding, 
then  made  a  visit  to  Albany  to  persuade,  if  possible,  the 
government  to  renew  the  order.  They  failed  of  the 
object  of  their  mission,  for  the  reason  that  advices  had 
been  received  from  Washington  that  no  new  men  were 
wanted.  Then  Colonel  Fox  tendered  the  services  of  the 
regiment  for  two  years,  which  tender  was  not  accepted 
for  the  same  reasons.  Within  a  few  days  from  this  last 
decision,  over  five  hundred  men  volunteered  from  the 
Seventy-fourth  into  the  United  States  service,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  Elmira  and  there  consolidated  with  other 
companies  from  this  city  which  subsequently  formed  the 


I30  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

Twenty-first  Regiment,  of  which  Captain  Rogers  of  the 
Seventy-fourth  was  unanimously  elected  colonel. 

The  Twenty-first  Regiment  so  formed  was  the  first 
that  left  Buffalo  for  two  years'  service,  the  majority  of 
its  officers  being  chosen  from  the  Seventy-fourth.  The 
Seventy-fourth  kept  up  its  organization,  its  drills,  and 
exercises,  and  held  itself  in  readiness  at  a  moment's  call. 
I  am  afraid  it  is  too  true  of  soldiers  as  of  other  men, 
that  their  good  is  often  ''writ  on  water."  It  is  just  to  a 
body  of  men  who  have  been  the  guardians  of  the  public 
peace,  that  their  service  should  be  properly  acknowledged, 
and  that  our  vast  interests  of  life  and  property  should 
realize  to  whose  vigilance  they  owe  their  security.  The 
Seventy-fourth,  aside  from  its  service  abroad,  have  been 
important  custodians  of  the  peace  at  home.  At  every 
alarm  they  have  been  among  the  minute-men  who  have 
kept  awake  that  others  might  sleep.  This  service  they 
performed  at  the  time  of  the  attempts  upon  Johnson's 
Island  to  release  Confederate  prisoners,  and  on  several 
occasions  of  threatened  raids  from  Canada.  When  in 
September,  1863,  the  city  was  startled  by  the  intelligence 
that  the  rebels  had  seized  two  steamers  with  the  view  of 
arming  them  and  preying  upon  our  lake  commerce,  and 
its  intelligent  board  of  trade  were  looking  about  for 
proper  means  of  defense,  the  Seventy-fourth  met  the 
exigency,  and  General  Lansing,  the  brigade  commander, 
offered  to  equip  with  men  and  guns  a  steamer  for  defense 
against  the  anticipated  hostile  expedition.  The  offer  was 
accepted,  and  the  needful  cruising  service  rendered,  until 
the  project  of  rebel  attack  was  abandoned,  after  the 
sinking  of  one  of  their  vessels,  and  the  capture  of  another 
by  the  gallant  soldiers  of  another  State. 

In  October  of  the  same  year,  the  town  was  again 
startled  by  the  intelligence  that  a  large  body  of  rebels 


THE   NEW    BUFFALO   ARMORY.  I3I 

equipped  with  incendiary  materials,  were  about  to  march 
on  Detroit  and  Buffalo,  and  the  several  companies  of 
the  Seventy-fourth  Regiment  were  promptly  detailed  to 
patrol  duty  about  the  harbor  and  along  the  river.  Amid 
the  storms  of  the  season,  and  with  unusual  exposure  to 
their  severities,  and  with  no  compensation  except  the 
consciousness  of  self-devotion  to  protect  the  city,  they 
discharged  that  duty.  On  other  occasions  of  apprehended 
public  disturbance,  they  were  the  acting  guardians  of  the 
peace.  It  was  a  local  auxiliary  police  force,  a  watch,  a 
guard.  The  regiment  interposed  their  lives  between  the 
city's  safety  and  every  threatened  danger,  come  from 
what  source  it  might.  It  is  something  for  a  thousand 
men  to  offer  their  breasts  as  shields  between  a  foe 
breathing  fire,  rapine  and  slaughter,  and  a  city  of  100,000 
inhabitants  and  their  possessions. 

But  the  service  of  this  regiment  was  not  confined  to 
home,  and  it  is  not  their  fault  if  they  have  not  the 
same  battle  records  with  some  other  regiments  of  the 
State.  They  went  wherever  they  were  sent.  At  the 
time  of  the  rebel  raid  into  Pennsylvania,  when  the  army 
of  Lee  met  that  defeat  from  which  it  never  recovered, 
and  the  Confederacy  learned  that  they  could  never  trans- 
fer the  seat  of  war  to  the  north  of  the  Potomac,  so  long 
as  there  were  Northern  men  to  bear  arms,  the  Seventy- 
fourth  Regiment  was  called  to  the  most  important  and 
successful  service  in  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland  in  thwart- 
ing the  strategic  movements  of  the  enemy.  Immediately 
after  the  battle  of  Gettysburg  they  were  summoned  to 
New  York  to  aid  in  the  suppression  of  the  riots  of  July, 
1863,  riots  which  inflicted  an  indelible  disgrace  upon  our 
civilization,  and  placed  in  imminent  peril  the  safety  of  the 
metropolis.  That  was  one  of  those  occasions  when  the 
country  learned  that  local  crises  are  liable  to  arise,  when 


132  ADDRESSES  AND    MISCELLANIES. 

the  ordinary  municipal  police  are  but  as  the  chaff  before 
the  rolling  whirlwind  in  the  presence  of  an  organized  mass 
of  brute-force,  which,  drunk  with  passion,  and  infuriated 
by  the  spirit  of  demons,  with  pike  and  blazing  brand  sweep 
on  in  their  mad  career,  reckless  of  the  many  or  the  few, 
the  incarnate  genius  of  destruction  and  anarchy.  Let  us 
remember  that  it  was  the  military  hand  that  quelled  that 
mob.  The  soft  words  of  priests  and  laics  to  stay  the  wild 
flood  of  such  demoniac  fury  !  "God  save  the  mark!" 
Let  us  accept  the  lesson.  Large  cities  are  liable  to 
crises,  more  often  in  times  of  war,  but  liable  to  occur  in 
times  of  profound  peace,  when  public  order  is  threatened 
with  overthrow,  and  infuriated  masses,  trampling  under 
foot  every  citizen  obligation,  attempt  to  inaugurate  a 
reign  of  violence  in  the  place  of  law.  Let  us  accept  the 
lesson,  and  the  fact  that  at  such  crises  nothing  can  surely 
be  relied  upon  to  stay  this  flood  of  ruin  but  the  military, 
and  that  its  necessary  method  of  repression  sometimes 
must  be  the  bayonet  and  artillery.  Underlying  all  our 
civil  methods  of  preserving  order,  presenting  themselves 
in  forms  so  gloved  and  furred  that  they  appear  but  as 
elements  of  grace  and  dignity,  is  a  coarse  power,  the 
security  for  them  all,  which  has  no  other  name  than  force. 
It  has  a  hand  of  iron  and  its  grasp  is  death.  From  the 
field  of  riot  in  New  York  the  regiment  was  ordered  back 
to  their  own  city,  to  aid  in  the  suppression  of  incipient 
riots  at  home.  They  answered  the  call  of  the  local 
authorities  to  preserve  the  public  peace,  again  securing 
the  supremacy  of  order  and  law. 

The  Seventy-fourth  Regiment  has  been  an  academy 
for  the  military  education  of  officers  and  men.  About 
fifteen  hundred,  of  whom  three  hundred  were  officers, 
graduated  in  this  school  into  active  service  during  the 
war.     Over   one   hundred    officers   so    trained   and    sent 


THE   NEW   BUFFALO   ARMORY.  I33 

forth  into  other  regiments,  were  either  killed  in  battle 
or  died  in  hospitals,  or  languished  out  their  weary  lives 
in  Confederate  prisons.  Our  glorious  Forty-ninth  and 
Twenty-first  Regiments,  whose  gallant  conduct  in  many 
a  hard-fought  battle  is  an  enduring  glory,  were  largely 
officered  and  manned  from  the  Seventy-fourth.  Is  not 
this  history  worthy  of  public  recognition?  Now  why 
should  not  Buffalo  take  into  its  fostering  regard  this 
organization?  Can  she  afford  to  allow  its  military  organ- 
izations to  die  out  for  want  of  that  citizen  sympathy 
without  which  the  soldier  who  respects  himself  will  soon 
retire  from  the  field,  leaving  the  organization,  if  it  survive 
at  all,  to  degenerate  into  a  mere  worthless,  undisciplined 
pageant  and  show?  I  know  that  the  reasons  for  main- 
taining large  standing  armies  in  Europe  do  not  exist 
here,  and  I  know  that  unless  some  future  madness  shall 
accomplish  the  project  that  has  just  been  thwarted  at 
such  terrible  cost,  the  breaking  up  of  the  federal  govern- 
ment into  separate  and  rival  powers,  there  never  will  be  an 
occasion  for  fastening  such  an  incubus  upon  our  people. 
I  know,  too,  that  since  our  isolated  position  as  a  nation 
renders  us  independent  of  the  nice  and  jealous  adjustments 
of  the  balance-of-power  policy  of  Europe,  we  are  relieved 
from  the  necessity  of  a  large  standing  military  force.  I 
know,  too,  we  have  no  subjugated  commercial  colonies 
in  remote  corners  of  the  world,  rendering  an  unwilling 
obedience  to  an  authority  they  hate,  an  authority  they 
would  cast  off  the  first  moment  they  felt  relax  the  grasp 
of  the  military  arm.  But,  notwithstanding  all  these 
happy  advantages,  I  know  nothing  could  be  more  fatal 
to  our  security  than  to  abandon  all  military  organizations, 
and  to  refuse,  in  peace,  to  prepare  for  war. 

You  cannot  prepare  for  war  in  any  way  so  cheap,  or  so 
agreeable  to  our  social  spirit,  as  by  maintaining  in  towns 


134  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

like  ours,  two  or  three  rei^imcnts  comi)o.sed  of  the  vi<^or 
and  energy  of  young  manhood,  and  representing  the  soUd 
interests  of  the  pubHc.  They  become  schools  of  military 
science  and  discipline,  and  in  time  of  war  become  the 
nucleuses  of  vast  armies.  There  is  no  large  town  on  the 
globe  that  can  so  ill  afford  to  dispense  with  this  aid  as 
Buffalo.  Beautiful  and  glorious  as  she  is  in  her  art,  and 
sitting  as  she  does  like  a  queen  upon  her  commercial  throne 
at  the  foot  of  these  seas  which  float  a  wealth  greater  than 
a  Solomon  ever  dreamed  of,  her  beauty  and  her  glory  are 
the  monuments  of  her  precedent  ruin  at  the  hand  of  War. 
Humble  as  she  was  in  1812,  she  was  a  bright  mark 
enough  for  the  enemy  to  strike  at.  She  had  no  ware- 
houses, no  elevators,  no  vast  manufactories  for  the  torch  ; 
but  Buffalo,  as  she  is  now,  without  extraordinary  means 
of  defense,  and  in  a  night  of  surprise,  could  be  as  effect- 
ually destroyed  by  the  well  organized  raid  of  an  enemy 
as  she  could  a  half  century  ago.  I  do  not  anticipate 
war  with  England,  but  I  know  that  human  passions  are 
unchanged,  and  I  know  that  during  our  national  history, 
there  never  has  been  an  interim  of  many  years  without 
some  cause  of  common  difference  which  embittered  both 
countries,  and  taxed  the  wisest  statesmanship  to  pacifi- 
cally adjust.  How  many  nights  of  anxiety  had  our  tow  n 
during  the  late  rebel  war,  when  Canada  was  a  great 
Cave  of  Adullam,  affording  shelter  and  impunity  to  your 
enemies  who  exhausted  all  their  power  to  devise  schemes 
of  destruction  for  the  cities  of  the  lakes  !  And  since  the 
conclusion  of  the  war,  how  nearly  have  we  been,  and 
more  than  once,  to  serious  trouble  through  those  semi- 
domestic  enemies  of  England,  who  would  make  our 
shores,  for  their  purposes,  what  the  Confederates  made 
the  shores  of  Canada,  for  theirs — a  base  of  hostile  opera- 
tions.    What  vigilance    it    has  cost   our  government   to 


THE   NEW    BUFFALO   ARMORY.  1 35 

thwart  their  purposes,  and  how  nobly  did  your  regiment, 
gentlemen,  vindicate  its  character  as  a  preserver  of 
national  peace  and  of  local  safety,  by  its  service  in  those 
times  of  tumult. 

And  here  let  me  say,  that  if  there  be  any  act  of  our 
people  and  government  for  which  I  specially  thank  and 
honor  them,  it  is  that,  in  dealing  with  this  domestic 
English  question,  they  have  risen  above  the  sentiment  of 
revenge,  which  should  wholly  pertain  to  another  civiliza- 
tion than  ours,  and  have  taught  the  world  that  the  genius 
of  American  democracy  allies  itself  to  the  principles  of 
Christian  justice.  They  have  returned  good  for  evil,  and 
by  their  magnanimity  have  won  victories  more  glorious 
than  can  ever  follow  the  triumphant  eagles  and  ensigns 
of  their  armies. 

The  great  interests  of  civilization  are  too  precious  to 
be  surrendered  to  the  guidance  of  the  lower  passions  of 
our  nature,  and  American  democracy  (I  employ  the  term 
in  its  broad  and  not  in  its  partisan  sense)  has  a  sublimer 
mission  than  revenge — the  nobler  mission  of  teaching 
Europe  international  justice. 

These  military  organizations  cannot  be  maintained  ex- 
cept by  a  generous  co-operation  on  the  part  of  the  public. 
They  should  be  manned  by  character,  and  by  their  Jyrrson- 
nel  command  the  public  respect.  This  is  easy  when  the 
public  recognizes  its  reciprocal  duty.  What  is  that  duty? 
These  organizations  involve  heavy  expenses.  They  absorb 
precious  time  ;  and  this  armed  police  force,  without  which 
your  town  may  be  placed  at  the  mercy  of  organized  pas- 
sion and  violence,  cannot  afford  to  bear  the  entire  burthen 
of  maintaining  this  guardianship  of  private  property  and 
public  peace. 

What  would  not  Buffalo  give  in  an  hour  when  it  should 
find  itself  at  the  mercy  of  infuriated  passion,  for  the  aid 


136  ADDRESSES  AND   MISCELLANIES. 

of  an  adequate  military  force?  Will  its  private  capital 
forget  its  generosity  and  its  enlightened  selfishness,  and 
refuse  to  aid  the  organizations  which  are  ever  ready  to 
interpose  themselves  between  revolutionary  violence  and 
the  public  tranquillity? 

A  single  word  further  on  the  national  necessities.  It 
is  an  age  when  every  first-class  power  but  ours  is  taxing 
its  highest  genius  to  perfect  its  arms,  and  to  put  into  the 
best  condition  its  fighting  force.  If  the  European  world 
is  to  have  peace  hereafter,  it  is  because  it  is  prepared  to 
fight  for  it.  The  same  ambition  and  lust  for  dominion 
which  characterized  the  nations  fifty  years  ago  inspire 
them  now.  There  is  not  a  small  power  in  Europe  which 
stands  intact  to-day  upon  any  other  principle  than  the 
balance-of-power  principle,  which  rests  upon  three  million 
bayonets.  Portugal  is  covered  by  the  paw  of  the  British 
lion,  or  Spain  would  absorb  her  in  a  day.  Switzerland, 
with  her  two  hundred  thousand  brave  soldiers,  nursed 
at  the  bosom  of  her  republican  institutions,  would  fall  a 
victim  to  a  strong  power  on  the  continent,  had  it  not  the 
whole  moral  and  military  strength  of  the  rest  of  Europe  to 
secure  her  independence.  Organization  and  centralization 
express  the  reigning  policy  of  European  cabinets.  Is  it  a 
day  for  us  to  adopt  a  policy  of  indifference,  breeding  weak- 
ness and  inviting  aggression  ? 

Let  us  not,  while  all  the  world  is  fortifying  its  military 
strength,  wholly  yield  ourselves  to  Millennial  dreams. 
Let  us  accept  the  situation,  and  meet  its  possible 
exigencies. 

Gentlemen,  I  have  spoken  on  the  war  side  of  this 
question.  There  is  another,  which  is  associated  with  our 
charities,  with  our  festivities,  with  public  occasions  of  joy, 
and  even  of  sorrow,  in  times  of  peace,  which  may  have  a 
brief  allusion. 


THE   NEW    BUFFALO   ARMORY,  1 37 

This  is  an  era   not  only  of  enterprise  and  work,  but  of 

social  recreation,  of  festive  pomp  and  pageantry.     It  has 

learned  good  old   Milton's  song : 

Hence,  loathed  Melancholy, 

Of  Cerberus  and  blackest  midnight  born, 

Haste  thee,  Joy,  and  bring  with  thee 

Jest  and  youthful  jollity  ; 

.Sport  that  wrinkled  care  derides, 

And  Laughter  holding  both  his  sides. 

Come  and  trip  it  as  you  go. 

With  a  light  fantastic  toe  ; 

And  in  thy  right  hand,  lead  with  thee, 

The  mountain  nymph,  sweet  Liberty. 

We  associate  our  charities  with  social  pleasure,  and  so, 
almo.st,  do  good  by  stealth.  Even  Science,  with  her 
grave  face  and  sober  livery,  looking  with  her  calm  eyes 
into  the  mysteries  of  things,  when  she  approaches  us  for 
a  practical  demonstration  of  our  reverence  and  interest, 
comes  leaning  on  the  Graces,  as  radiant  with  smiles,  and 
bewitching  as  they. 

Your  organization  can  contribute  to  these  festivities, 
and  can  swell  their  offerings  to  charity,  by  the  relations 
of  sympathy  which  you  can  establish  between  you  and 
our  benevolent  institutions.  I  am  happy  to  be  able  to 
say  from  the  commander  of  this  regiment,  that  the  Sev- 
enty-fourth will  ever  be  happy  to  associate  itself  in  every 
proper  way  with  the  enterprises  of  our  noble  women  and 
generous  men,  who,  while  seeking  the  sunny  side  of  life 
for  themselves,  forget  not  the  orphan,  the  widow,  and  the 
homeless, 

I  was  forewarned  by  the  gallant  commander  of  the 
regiment,  that  my  address  should  be  within  the  minutes 
I  have  assigned  to  it,  for  there  were  festivities  in  waiting. 
His  hint  had  been  needless,  for  when  I  see  this  array  of 
beauty  that  surrounds  me,  I  am  as  one  entranced  by  a 
magic  spell. 
10 


138  ADDRESSES   AND    MTSCELT^ANIES. 

Gentlemen  of  the  Seventy-fourth,  we  arc  not  in  "  Bel- 
£^ium's  capital,"  nor  do  startling  echoes  reach  us  from  a 
tragic  Waterloo,  but  in  this  temple,  to-night  dedicated  to 
War,  yet  garlanded  with  the  trophies  of  Peace, 

"  The  lamps  shine  o'er  fair  women  and  brave  men," 
and  I  bid  you  and  your  guests — 

"  On  with  the  dance  !  let  joy  be  unconfined, 
No  sleep  till  morn,  when  Youth  and  Pleasure  meet 
To  chase  the  glowing  hours  with  flying  feet." 


INDEPENDENCE  DAY  AT  BUFFALO.        1 39 


INDEPENDENCE    DAY. 

Oration  delivered  at  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  July  4,  1870. 


Fellow-citizens  : 

We  should  be  unworthy  our  inheritance,  if  we  did  not 
greet  this  anniversary  with  grateful  emotion.  Let  us  not 
check  the  sensibility  which  the  associations  of  the  day 
awaken.  It  is  not  the  weakness,  but  the  strength  of  our 
nature,  that  with  worshipful  feeling  goes  back  to  the 
birth-hour  of  the  nation,  to  pay  its  homage  to  the  mem- 
ory of  the  fathers.  No  selfish  egotisms,  no  vain  love  of 
personal  glory,  laid  the  foundations  of  our  government  ; 
the  sacrifices  of  the  Revolution  had  no  other  prompting 
than  a  love  of  rational  liberty,  and  a  purpose  to  establish 
political  institutions  under  which  private  and  public  inter- 
ests could  be  best  protected  and  promoted.  It  was  the  first 
instance  in  modern  history  in  which  government  was  prac- 
tically regarded  a  solemn  trust  for  the  people,  in  which  no 
hierarchy  should  stand  between  God  and  the  individual 
soul,  and  no  order  of  aristocratic  privilege  largely  absorb 
the  powers  of  the  State.  It  was  the  sentiment  of  unselfish 
devotion  to  a  cause  which  rendered  possible  the  charac- 
ters who  made  that  age  heroic,  if  not  unique,  in  history. 
We  cannot  come  too  often  to  that  early  altar  of  sacrifice, 
and  find  fresh  inspiration  in  the  faith  and  patriotism  of 
its  worshipers.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  achieve- 
ments of  our  generation,  and  we  may  hope,  in  no  vain- 
glorious spirit,  it  has  not  been  unworthy  its  lineage,  it  has 
not  transcended.     The  central  figures  of  the  revolution- 


I40  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

ary  period  arc  still  colossal,  and  the   character  of  Wash- 
ington yet  borrows  no  enchantment  of  receding  time. 

The  principle  of  development  is  nowhere  more  apparent 
than  in  the  domain  of  political  ideas  and  events.  Men 
not  only  build  better  than  they  know  when  they  lay  the 
foundations  of  a  free  State,  but  there  is  a  providence 
enfolded  in  every  great  revolution  and  historic  event, 
which  time  alone  can  evolve.  If  its  secret  be  suspected  at 
all,  it  is  by  the  very  few,  perhaps  the  single  prophet  of  the 
nation,  who  see  below  the  horizon  of  the  present  and  feel 
in  their  own  souls  the  heart-throbs  of  the  future.  The 
present  spirit  and  power  of  the  nation  are  the  development 
of  that  hidden  principle  which  was  latent  in  the  revolution. 
How  few  appreciated,  as  did  Jefferson,  the  expansive 
power  of  free  institutions,  that  they  were  the  Aaron's  rod 
of  this  continent,  which,  by  a  law  of  attraction  as  irresisti- 
ble as  that  which  governs  the  material  universe,  would  in 
just  and  legitimate  methods,  absorb  the  lesser  rods,  the 
savage  and  weak  powers  with  which  they  came  in  contact, 
and  so  give  all  this  heritage  between  the  oceans  to  cul- 
tured man.  This  expansive  element  was  resisted  by 
many  statesmen  who  spent  their  lives  in  bondage  to  the 
supposed  incapabilities  of  a  written  constitution,  thinking 
it  to  be  inflexible  as  iron,  which  could  not  bend  without 
breaking.  As  if  a  constitution  were  a  creation,  and  not  a 
growth,  as  if  it  were  intended  to  bind  down  a  young 
State  and  encase  its  life  forever  in  the  swaddling-clothes 
of  the  cradle  !  As  if  a  nation,  born  of  freedom,  would 
not,  when  it  felt  the  stirrings  of  its  mighty  life,  burst  the 
bonds  of  any  narrow  code  repressive  of  its  growth  or  its 
defensive  power!  The  nation  owes  its  life  to-day  to  the 
recognition  of  its  organic  law  as  a  power  of  adaptability 
which  rises  to  the  occasions  of  the  country,  and  enables 
it  to  execute  its  will.     To  this  result  both  the  o-reat  his- 


INDEPENDENCE   DAY   AT   BUFFALO.  I4I 

toric  parties  of  tlie  country  have  contributed,  one  more 
especially  in  the  line  of  territorial  expansion,  and  the 
other  of  political  ideas.  So  each  has  been  the  comple- 
ment of  the  other,  and  the  higher  life  and  ampler  power 
of  the  constitution  has  grown  out  of  their  stormiest 
controversies. 

Another  development  of  our  institutions,  to  which  the 
late  civil  war  largely  contributed,  is  the  growth  of  the 
federal  power,  perhaps  I  may  say  the  principle  of  cen- 
tralization. The  weakness  of  the  federal  government 
was  in  the  tendency  to  make  the  several  States  sovereign 
at  its  expense.  This  introduced  into  our  system  an  ele- 
ment which  over  and  over  again  has  proved  fatal  in  the 
history  of  States.  It  was  the  whole  mischief  of  our  early 
confederacy,  it  was  the  vulnerable  point  in  the  Amphic- 
tyonic  Council  of  Greece,  the  attempt  to  make  a  central 
government,  ever  antagonized  by  numerous  independent 
States,  swayed  by  all  the  conflicting  motives  of  interest 
and  ambition.  However  strong  may  be  the  attachment 
to  the  State  of  one's  birth  or  adop.tion,  the  first  political 
interest  of  the  citizen  should  center  in  the  federal  gov- 
ernment. Multitudes  of  men  were  driven  into  the  late 
rebellion  against  their  personal  convictions,  by  that  senti- 
mentality which  yielded  their  first  allegiance  to  their 
State :  so  subordinating  their  greater  duty  to  the  nation, 
to  the  lesser  their  local  government.  We  may  spin  our 
theories  never  so  fine  about  State  Rights  in  time  of  peace, 
but  in  time  of  war  there  must  be  a  central  power  of  force 
enough  to  execute  the  will  of  the  nation.  Bismarck  was 
rude  but  wise  when  he  attacked  the  vice  of  the  German 
system,  and  made  a  nation  out  of  the  feudal  fragments  of 
the  empire.  It  must  be  that  or  the  chronic  weakness  of 
petty  independencies.  I  have  no  sympathy  with  irrespon- 
sible   or   capricious  power,  but   I   recognize  a  judgment 


142  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

and  a  will  whicli  is  truer  and  better  than  tlie  jud^nnent 
and  will  of  any  fragment  of  a  great  nation,  that  of  the 
nation  itself.  Let  iis  not  take  needless  alarm  at  the 
greater  centralization  in  the  federal  government.  It  is 
this  which  has  given  the  nation  greater  political  s)m- 
metry,  and  enabled  it  to  protect  itself  against  the  armed 
theories  of  independent  State  sovereignty. 

Providence,  in  its  own  time,  has  unfolded  a  purpose  in 
connection  with  the  occupation  of  this  country,  which 
seems,  in  its  full  import,  to  have  transcended  all  prophetic 
vision.  That  purpose,  as  I  read  it,  is  to  make  it  the 
theatre  on  which  is  to  be  developed  the  co-mingled  and 
fraternizing  energy  and  character  of  certain  of  the  leading 
races  of  Western  Europe,  which  combine  an  intense  love 
of  individual  hberty  with  a  passion  for  well  being.  By 
their  union  in  these  States,  the  vigor,  enterprise,  and 
intellectual  grasp  of  the  Anglo-Saxon,  and  the  patient 
industry  and  philosophic  method  of  the  Teuton,  are  here 
to  work  out,  whatever  that  maximum  may  be,  the  best 
results  of  civilization,  which,  humanly  speaking,  is  their 
own  creation.  Germany  gave  to  the  world  the  printing 
press,  and  so  restored  to  Europe  the  treasures  of  learning 
which  for  centuries  had  been  buried  in  her  jnonasteries. 
Germany  vindicated  the  right  of  private  judgment  and 
created  the  era  of  intellectual  emancipations.  The  Anglo- 
Saxon  race,  with  the  same  aspirations,  wrought  out  with 
even  more  success  the  German  idea.  It  gave  freedom  to 
trade,  to  commerce,  and  to  the  citizen,  freedom  in  the 
Church,  and  freedom  in  the  State.  By  education,  by 
physical  comforts,  by  taste  and  art,  and  by  the  sacredness 
and  purity  of  their  homes,  the  two  races  have  each  worked 
out  a  civilization,  acting  and  reacting,  each  upon  the 
other,  which,  when  brought  together  on  a  common  field, 
find    themselves    kindred    forces.     I    speak  of  these   two 


INDEPENDENCE  DAY  AT  BUFFALO.        1 43 

races,  not  to  ignore  the  Celt,  which  plays  no  unimportant 
part,  but  because  they  so  far  do,  and  ever  must,  numer- 
ically, largely  preponderate. 

The  African  race  among  us  is  an  important  incident 
which  has  now  no  legal  barrier  in  the  way  of  its  advance- 
ment as  a  social  and  political  power.  But  its  most 
hopeful  representative  or  friend,  will  hardly  claim  for  it 
that  it  will  make  any  distinct  and  new  impression  on  our 
American  society.  I  say  again  the  now  revealed  secret 
of  God  is  the  planting  here  for  development  in  harmoni- 
ous union  and  co-operation,  these  races  of  Western 
Europe  to  work  out  the  problem  of  their  individual  and 
national  life  as  best  they  may.  They  are  in  sympathy  in 
religion,  in  methods  of  speculative  thought,  in  the  genius 
of  their  peoples,  and  in  their  social  habits  and  industries. 

I  do  not  undertake  to  penetrate  the  Divine  purpose  in 
isolating  as  He  has  for  thousands  of  years  the  Eastern 
races,  and  especially  that  race  which  has  appeared  in  con- 
siderable number  on  the  Pacific  coast,  and  is  now  begin- 
ning to  disturb  the  relations  of  American  labor  in  other 
sections  of  the  country.  I  recognize  the  fact,  and  that  as 
a  race  it  has  in  its  development,  in  the  whole  line  of 
individual  and  national  life,  hardly  an  element  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  Western  races. 

If  the  religion  of  a  people  determine  their  type  of 
character,  they  are  wedded  to  a  system  which  for  nearly 
three  thousand  years  has  cast  every  generation  in  the 
same  mould.  It  is  a  nation  not  without  virtues,  but  with- 
out the  inherent  force  capable  of  a  progressive  civiliza- 
tion. It  is  Eastern,  and  distinguished  by  that  immobility 
which  can  run  only  in  the  grooves  of  tradition.  The 
partial  contact  that  people  are  now  seeking  with  the 
West  will  not  impart  that  force.  It  may  be  aided  by 
external   helps,  but  the  force  that    lifts  a  people  to  the 


144  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

higliLM"  piano  is  inherent  in  the  national  character.  It  is 
not  as  if  the  Chinese  were  without  a  civilization  that  had 
penetrated  all  their  life,  become  incru.sted  in  and  a  part 
of  it.  If  they  were  so  without  a  civilization  as  were  the 
people  unnaturally  forced  here  from  the  African  continent, 
they  could  be  moulded — so  far  as  they  were  capable  of 
receiving  an  impress — by  contact.  We  must  accept  his- 
tory when  so  plainly  written  by  the  finger  of  God,  and 
its  logic.  There  is  no  reason  which  philosophy  can  give, 
why  the  Chinese,  ages  ago,  attained  their  maximum  of 
development  and  were  hardened  as  in  adamant  into  the 
type  in  which  we  find  them,  except  that  it  is  the  neces- 
sary result  of  the  normal  law  of  their  character.  The 
stream  will  not  rise  higher  than  the  fountain,  except  by  a 
forcing  process,  and  when  the  force  is  withdrawn  the 
stream  falls  to  its  natural  level.  England  has  governed 
"India  for  nearly  two  hundred  years,  yet  the  whole  Indian 
system  of  social  and  religious  polity  remains  substantially 
unchanged.  India,  like  China,  had  an  old  civilization. 
She  could  be  bent  by  a  superior  political  pressure,  but 
not  broken,  and  her  whole  machinery  of  caste  and  of 
social  organization  is  running  to-day  essentially  as  in 
the  times  of  Clive  and  Hastings.  As  there  are  great 
physical  divisions  of  the  globe,  the  tropics  with  their  per- 
ennial luxuriance,  the  temperate  regions  which  yield  their 
fruits  only  to  patient  industry,  and  the  cold  latitudes  of 
the  North  w^here  human  life  is  maintained  by  a  hard  and 
persistent  conflict  with  nature,  so  do  we  find  correspond- 
ing divisions  in  the  human  family  who  present  us  equally 
radical  diversities.  Whatever  of  this  may  be  ascribed  to 
physical  causes,  it  is  sufficient  that  they  exist,  that  they 
are  radical  and  unchangeable.  This  brings  me  to  say,  in 
connection  with  my  thought  in  relation  to  the  future  of 
the  country,  that  I   regard  the  commingling  here  of  the 


INDEPENDENCE  DAY  AT  BUFFALO.        1 45 

Mongolian  with  the  races  of  Western  Europe  unnatural, 
and  full  of  evil  portent.  Let  us  look  at  it  from  the  lowest 
plane  first.  It  is  argued  that  a  large  Chinese  emigration 
is  desirable,  because  they  bring  industry  and  a  certain 
imitative  skill  of  fingers,  which  can  be  employed  at  low 
wages  and  so  largely  add  to  the  gains  of  capital.  It 
is  then  a  movement  that  seeks  to  disturb  the  natural  and 
ordinary  relations  of  our  labor  and  capital.  The  Chinese 
can  live  upon  little,  for  such  is  their  national  habit,  and 
they  are  content  with  the  meanest  physical  conditions. 
American  labor  asks  so  far  to  share  with  capital  their 
joint  product,  that  it  may  enjoy  that  degree  of  comfort 
and  culture  which  it  has  been  the  boast  and  glory  of  our 
institutions  to  afford  it.  This  has  not  been  the  land  of 
Chartism,  nor  of  frequent  unreasonable  combinations  of 
its  industry.  There  is  among  us  a  standard  of  remunera- 
tion settled  by  the  ordinary  law  of  demand  and  suppl)', 
which  has  enabled  the  labor  of  the  country  to  be  well 
fed,  well  housed,  well  educated,  and  to  maintain  its  self- 
respect.  The  labor  of  the  country  is  a  part  of  ourselves ;  it 
represents  our  civilization.  It  has  ever  been  an  influence 
and  a  power  in  the  State.  It  has  furnished  the  country 
many  of  its  foremost  representatives  in  the  whole  line  of 
its  public  thought  and  action.  American  labor  has  gone 
from  the  workshop,  the  farm  and  the  factory  by  natural 
gradations,  to  the  professor's  chair,  to  the  foremost  ranks 
in  journalism,  to  the  bench,  to  the  senate,  and,  more  than 
once,  the  presidential  office. 

In  time  of  war  it  has  readily  responded  to  the  call  of 
country,  and  freely  given  of  its  subsistence  and  its  life  to 
its  cause.  Has  it  not  a  right  to  ask  the  country  not  to 
foster  a  policy  that  shall  degrade  it  ?  That  it  shall  not 
encourage  the  disturbance  of  established  relations,  and  so 
give    it    less    bread,  poorer  homes,  and,  consequently,  a 


146  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

lower  social  status  without  the  Jiopcs  which  have  c\'cr 
inspired  the  American  laborer?  What  the  need,  I  ask? 
The  country  has  grown  in  material  wealth  and  power 
with  a  rapidity  that  is  the  age's  miracle.  Its  progress 
westward  has  been  steady  and  healthy.  European  States 
have  had  years  a  thousand  where  we  have  had  a  hundred 
for  development ;  yet  within  a  century  we  have  increased 
our  population,  out  of  homogeneous  peoples,  more  than 
ten-fold. 

Let  not  the  country  be  over-solicitous  about  the  inter- 
ests of  capital.  It  is  quite  able  to  take  care  of  itself.  It 
is  the  task  of  the  present,  and  will  be  of  the  future 
statesman,  to  preserve  the  just  equilibrium  between 
it  and  the  other  interests.  It  is  strong  enough  now  to 
work  its  will.  It  is  seldom  thwarted,  so  powerful  is  it 
made  through  its  corporate  combinations.  Capital  holds 
the  bread  of  labor  in  its  hand,  and  it  should  take  its 
chances  upon  the  basis  our  own  civilization  offers,  and 
not  enhance  them  by  an  unnatural  in-rush  of  a  foreign 
element  which,  though  filtered  through  a  thousand  gen- 
erations, can  never  become  homogeneous  with  our  people. 

Let  us  look  at  this  question,  for  a  moment,  from 
another  plane.  China  has  four  hundred  millions  of  peo- 
ple. She  can  double  our  population  and  scarcely  feel  the 
loss.  She  could  reduce  all  our  labor  to  a  standard  of 
wages  that  would  give  her  an  easy  monopoly  in  every 
branch  of  industry.  She  would  learn  her  political  power 
and  soon  become  a  disturbing  force  in  all  our  Municipal, 
State  and  Federal  politics.  With  no  power  of  national 
assimilation,  whither  will  such  a  relation,  in  the  end,  lead 
us?  I  answer,  a  large  Asiatic  population  on  this  conti- 
nent, of  force  enough,  numerically,  to  seriously  check  the 
ascendency  of  American  interests  and  ideas,  will  inevita- 
bly induce  a  war  of  races.     No  instinct  is  more  tenacious 


INDEPENDENCE   DAY   AT   BUFP^ALO.  1 47 

than  that  of  race,  no  conflicts  more  bitter  and  uncompro- 
mising than  those  which  grow  out  of  different  civilizations 
struggHng  for  ascendency  on  the  same  domain.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  what  party  will  go  to  the  wall  in  that 
conflict,  should  it  ev'er  come.  The  West  will  not  be  con- 
quered by  the  East.  The  races  who  sprang  from  the  loins 
of  the  sea  kings,  who  have  all  the  love  of  independence 
and  power  which  characterized  their  northern  ancestors 
before  the  centuries  had  trained  them  to  social  manners, 
will  never  succumb  to  Eastern  effeminacy.  Is  it  said  the 
Chinese  emigration  is  insignificant,  and  these  apprehen- 
sions groundless?  Remember  that  in  about  one  hundred 
years  a  handful  of  Africans,  brought  to  these  shores  in  the 
colonial  days,  multiplied  to  four  millions;  that,  to  settle 
their  relations  to  our  society,  the  whole  country  was  for 
four  years  wrapped  in  a  whirlwind  and  tempest  of  war 
that  swept  down  in  its  fury  a  half  million  men  and  ten 
thousand  millions  of  treasure. 

No,  our  nation  cannot  be  the  world's  crucible  and 
accept  the  final  amalgam  for  our  American  civilization, 
it  has  a  tone  and  spirit  as  distinctly  its  own  as  has  China 
or  India.  It  has  attached  to  itself  and  absorbed  homo- 
geneous peoples,  because  they  are  homogeneous.  It 
should  invite  no  element  it  cannot  absorb.  Let  the 
Western  races  here  work  out  their  destiny.  Let  it  not 
be  forced  by  any  hot-bed  development  which  can  give  no 
healthy  growth.  Then  the  vision  of  Berkeley  may  be 
realized  : 

Westward  the  course  of  empire  takes  its  way, 
The  first  four  acts  already  past ; 
A  fifth  shall  close  the  drama  with  the  day. 
Time's  noblest  offspring  is  the  last. 

National  purification  is  the  evolution  of  the  same 
Providential    law    we    have    been    contemplating,    a    law 


148  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

which  sometimes  develops  in  the  Cdlin  of  peace,  and 
sometimes  amid  the  storms  of  war.  i""r(jm  battle-fields 
have  often  come  the  best  interpretations  of  old  truths 
and  the  fairest  forms  of  new.  It  is  nature's  paradox  that 
life  should  issue  from  death,  regeneration  from  decay. 
War  has  cut  the  Gordian  knot  which  resisted  the  skill  of 
generations  of  statesmen  to  untie,  and  solved  the  problem 
that  seemed  insoluble. 

Slavery,  so  long  the  country's  curse  and  shame,  has 
gone  down  on  the  issue  of  battle,  and  is  forever  buried  out 
of  sight.  It  is  ours  to  bury  in  its  grave  the  hates  it  gen- 
erated, and  by  every  good  office  that  mutual  interests  and 
the  sacred  associations  of  a  common  past  can  prompt, 
restore  the  happy  relations  of  the  revolutionary  period. 
The  South  is  not  by  any  law  of  nature  alien  to  us.  We 
celebrate  to-day  with  demonstrations  of  pageantry  and 
honor,  an  event  in  which  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas  bore 
an  equal  part — ^in  labors,  in  struggles,  in  sacrifices — with 
Massachusetts  and  New  York.  I  trust  the  time  has 
arrived  when  we  can  do  justice  to  each  other,  and  when 
we  can  remember  and  acknowledge  the  virtues  of  every 
section  of  the  country.  I  know  the  bitterness  which 
civil  war  creates ;  I  know  the  uncharitableness  of  party 
spirit ;  I  know  the  prescriptive  tendency  of  power,  which 
exists  alike  under  every  name  and  every  guise,  and  which 
is  nowhere  more  intolerant  and  remorseless  than  in  a 
democracy ;  but  it  is  our  duty  to  rise  superior  to  prejudice 
and  passion,  and  in  mutual  forbearance  and  confidence 
lay  the  foundations  of  the  nation's  peace. 

Our  war  was  one  of  systems,  not  of  races,  and  inevita- 
ble as  destiny.  The  victory  is  with  us,  and  all  our  insti- 
tutions are  conformed  to  the  highest  ideal  of  citizen 
equality  before  the  law.  The  country  needs  more  than  a 
voting  force  ;  it  wants  its  brain  and  culture  and  enterprise 


INDEPENDENCE  DAY  AT  BUFFALO.        1 49 

in  every  department  of  its  activities,  its  legislation  not 
excepted.  In  the  material  interests  of  the  South  we 
have  ample  hostages  for  the  future.  "Let  us  have 
peace." 

While,  looking  at  the  general  interest,  these  sentiments 
seem  to  me  appropriate,  there  are  memories  associated 
with  the  late  struggle  which  shall  never  die.  If  we  bury 
our  hates  we  will  forget  neither  our  loves  nor  our  grati- 
tudes. In  the  constellation  of  human  virtues,  the  tran- 
scendent of  them  all  is  that  grandeur  of  character  which 
leads  men  to  devote  their  lives  to  country.  We  are 
debtors  to  our  heroes,  both  the  living  and  the  dead,  not 
only  for  the  right  maintained  but  for  an  example  of 
devotion  and  courage  that  dared  to  die.  The  principle 
announced  to  us  to-day  from  innumerable  graves,  and 
from  the  rivers,  lakes  and  seas  where  no  marble  can  mark 
the  place  of  the  soldier's  repose,  has  imparted  to  history 
its  chief  glory,  has  hallowed  even  the  cross  of  Roman 
ignominy — self-immolation  for  others.  How  poor  are  our 
swelling  words  and  dwarfish  acts  of  sacrifice  contrasted 
with  their  free  gift  of  life  !  But  let  us  not  think  of  them 
as  dead. 

Virtue  treads  paths  that  end  not  in  the  grave  ; 
No  ban  of  endless  night  exiles  the  brave ; 

And  to  the  saner  mind 
We  rather  seem  the  dead  that  stayed  behind. 

Theirs  is  the  ampler  life  of  their  age.  They  live  in  its 
noblest  thoughts,  in  its  divinest  worships,  and  sublimest 
achievements.  They  live  in  juster  laws  and  regenerated 
institutions.  Be  it  ours  to  maintain  what  at  infinite  cost 
they  have  secured,  that  this  fairest  fabric  of  constitutional 
liberty  may  endure  with  the  ages. 


150  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 


DECORATION    DAY. 

Address  delivered  at  Attica,  N.  Y.,  May  31,  1877. 


My  Friends: 

These  local  associations,  this  beautiful  valley,  this  amphi- 
theatre of  hills,  these  homes  of  the  dead  and  yonder  homes 
of  the  living,  are  a  part  of  my  possessions  and  me,  as  well 
as  yours  and  of  you.  And  when  I  remember  that  it  is 
hard  on  to  three-score  years  since  I  first  saw  the  light, 
and  that  almost  within  a  stone's  throw  from  where  we 
now  are,  and  that  from  that  hour  to  this  a  large  part  of 
what  is  most  sacred  to  me  has  been  associated  with  these 
scenes,  with  their  living  and  their  dead,  you  will  not  won- 
der that  I  unite  with  you  in  these  offices  with  a  sensibility 
no  other  spot  on  this  earth  could  awaken.  I  know  how 
absorbing  is  the  present,  and  how  rapidly  the  past  recedes 
into  ever-deepening  shades.  Yet  he  is  either  more  or  less 
than  human  to  whom  the  early  memories  do  not  some- 
times address  themselves  with  irresistible  appeal.  I  came 
here  to-day  obedient  to  your  call,  because  I  felt  the  touch 
of  Nature  draw  me,  and  the  sense  of  kinship  through  what 
is  most  sacred  to  you  and  to  me. 

Love  of  country  is- the  strongest  moral  passion  of  man. 
It  rises  superior  even  to  the  instincts  of  home  and  family. 
It  has  given  to  the  world  some  of  its  grandest  ideals.  I 
think  it  a  standard  by  which  we  may  measure  the  virtues 
of  a  people — certainly  those  virtues  which  give  manhood, 
nobility  and  true  grandeur  to  nations.      Without   it  all 


DECORATION    DAY   AT   ATTICA.  151 

individual  character  is  mean,  and  all  national  character 
calculating  and  selfish. 

The  patriotic  sentiment  has  inspired  the  song,  the  art, 
and  the  commemorative  ceremonial  of  the  ages.  No 
graves  are  so  hallowed,  no  reputations  so  honored,  as  the 
graves  and  reputations  of  those  who  have  given  the  last 
proof  of  their  love  of  country.  Said  a  Greek  orator  in  his 
funeral  oration  over  the  patriotic  dead,  "  The  whole  earth  is 
filled  with  their  monuments."  He  might  have  added  that 
to  the  end  of  time  new  monuments  would  continue  to  rise 
to  their  honor  among  all  peoples,  in  the  sympathy  and 
gratitude  that  would  spring  up  in  the  hearts  of  successive 
generations  of  men.  The  deepest  and  truest  homage  our 
own  people  have  ever  paid  to  a  citizen  of  another  land, 
who  was  in  no  way  identified  with  our  own  history,  was 
to  a  stranger  who  laid  the  gifts  of  his  genius  and  of  a 
royal  nature  on  the  altar  of  his  country.  Kossuth  was 
not  a  great  statesman,  but  he  was  a  patriot,  and  that  was 
enough,  and  his  presence  among  us  roused  an  enthusiasm 
whose  glow  has  not  yet  paled  its  fires. 

The  offices  of  this  day  throughout  the  land  illustrate 
my  thought.  This  beautiful  ceremony — the  decoration 
with  the  fresh  flowers  of  spring  of  the  graves  where  sleep 
our  brave — is  little  to  them,  for  they  are  beyond  the  ken 
of  all  we  do  ;  but  it  is  much  to  us.  For  here  we  renew 
our  citizen  vows,  and  from  these  patriot  graves  comes  an 
inspiration  to  purer  and  nobler  lives.  This  day  takes  us 
out  of  the  lower  planes  of  our  material  pursuits,  and  ele- 
vates us  to  the  pure  region  of  the  sentiments.  And  here 
I  find  its  chief  value  to  ourselves.  Life  is  poor  enough 
if  we  never  rise  above  selfish  motives  and  actions. 

"  Except  above  himself  he  can  erect  himself, 
How  poor  a  thing  is  man." 


152  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

And  it  is  amid  these  associations  that  our  natures  rise 
to  hi<jher  {)hines  and  we  appreciate  the  worth  of  a  conse- 
crated soul.  O,  it  is  a  great  thing  for  a  man  to  take  his 
life  in  his  hand,  and  give  it  a  free  offering  to  a  cause  dear 
to  his  heart.  That  cause  may  to  us  seem  unworthy  ;  if  it 
be  religious,  a  vain  bigotry,  or  a  low  superstition  ;  if  polit- 
ical, it  may  appear  to  us  treason,  with  the  deserts  of 
treason.  But  independent  of  all  these  considerations, 
rising  higher  than  our  conceits,  higher  than  our  convic- 
tions, the  crowning  act  of  sacrifice,  in  man  or  woman,  for 
a  principle  sacred  to  him  or  her  who  offers  it,  must  chal- 
lenge our  respect,  when  we  most  sternly  resist  the  cause 
that  inspires  the  offering.  The  crowning  act  of  the 
Founder  of  our  religion,  as  well  as  the  central  point  of 
its  faith,  was  a  voluntary  sacrifice  of  His  life  for  a  cause. 
May  I  not  recall  to  you  His  words  of  charity  to  those  who 
led  Him  to  the  cross  of  Roman  malefactors :  ''  Father, 
forgive  them,  for  they  know  not  what  they  do." 

This  principle  of  sacrifice  has  its  illustration  here  where 
you  most  honor  it,  for  these  were  your  sons,  your  brothers, 
the  loved  of  your  homes,  the  fellow-worshipers  at  your 
own  altar.  It  was  like  a  Roman,  but  was  it  not  also  like 
a  man,  when  the  stern  patriot  of  the  republic  answered 
one  condoling  him  on  the  death  of  his  son,  killed  in  bat- 
tle :  "  I  had  rather  be  the  father  of  this  dead  son  than 
of  any  other  man's  living."  These  your  dead  not  only 
consecrated  their  lives  to  a  cause,  but  to  a  cause  sacred  to 
you,  in  which  was  bound  up  your  dearest  hopes  for  your- 
selves, for  your  children,  and  for  humanity.  Not  to  speak 
invidiously,  for  there  can  be  no  grades  of  honor  among 
men  who  have  given  their  lives  to  their  country,  there  was 
one  who  went  from  among  you  a  leader  of  the  little  band 
from  a  neighboring  locality,  who  fell  in  the  battle  of  the 
Wilderness,  whose  name  not  only  recalls  a  personal  hero- 


DECORATION    DAY   AT   ATTICA.  1 53 

ism,  but  brings  freshly  to  our  recollection  the  riches  of  the 
countr}'  in  his  gifted  brother,  who  throughout  that  conflict 
was  as  a  thousand  men.  The  genius  of  the  late  Dr. 
Grosvenor  W.  Heacock,  whom  the  country  mourns,  was 
kindled  into  its  richest  glow  by  the  spirit  of  that  trial-hour. 
He  drank  the  hot  blood  of  the  revolution,  and  it  set  him 
all  on  fire.  His  eloquence  and  the  magnetism  of  his  nature 
were  a  distinct  force  and  inspiration.  I  know  few  so  great 
names  in  the  history  of  the  American  pulpit,  as  John  C. 
Lord  and  Grosvenor  W.  Heacock,  both  of  whom  brought 
their  genius,  their  moral  force,  the  great  energies  of  their 
souls  to  the  altar  of  their  country,  and  while  we  mourn 
their  loss,  we  crown  them  with  unfading  laurel  in  their 
place  in  the  Pantheon  of  American  patriotism.  You  will 
pardon  this  reference,  for  has  not  friendship  its  license, 
and  is  not  patriotism  our  theme? 

As  to  the  results  of  the  war,  look  in  what  direction  I 
will,  I  see  many  elements  of  hope  and  cheer,  and  very  few 
of  fear  and  despondency.  If  I  look  at  the  emancipated 
race,  I  see  that,  while  invested  with  the  dignity  of  citizen- 
ship, and  relieved  from  the  severities  of  his  previous  con- 
dition, he  is  rapidly  learning  that  freedom  does  not  mean 
immunity  from  labor,  and  that,  like  other  men,  his  happi- 
ness and  prosperity  depends  almost  wholly  upon  himself. 
It  is  not  wise  to  borrow  from  our  sentimentality  our  view 
of  the  practical  relations  of  the  freedmen.  The  colored 
race  in  the  South  is  a  peasantry,  the  only  peasantry  the 
country  knows  ;  and  we  cannot  expect  any  wide  departure 
for  them  from  the  peasant  history  among  all  civilized  peo- 
ples. A  peasantry  vested  with  political  power  will,  in  the 
long  run,  act  in  harmony  with  the  proprietorship  of  the 
land.  It  cannot  long  hold  itself  in  political  antagonism 
to  the  superior  interest  it  serves.     And  there  I   find  the 

solution  of  the  political  problem  of  the  two  races. 
11 


154  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

Tlic  relations  of  labor  and  capital  or  land  must,  as  a 
rule,  be  harmonious.  Violence  ma}-  and  lias  appeared 
during  the  transition  period,  while  the  social  system  has 
been  working  its  way  out  of  the  chaos  in  which  the  war 
left  them ;  but  the  permanent  relations  must,  on  the  prin- 
ciples of  enlightened  selfishness,  were  there  no  higher  mo- 
tive, be  peaceful  and  substantially  just.  When  we  remem- 
ber that  the  Cotton  States  have  made  four  and  a  half 
million  bales  of  cotton  during  the  past  year,  and  that  all 
the  organized  industries  of  the  South  have,  as  a  rule,  been 
successfully  prosecuted,  we  must  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  very  necessities  of  individual  life  and  social  organ- 
ization will  compel  peace  and  harmony  between  the  races. 
The  terrorism  of  the  Molly  Maguires  of  our  neighboring 
State  of  Pennsylvania  has  done  more  to  disturb  the  rela- 
tions of  labor  in  that  State  during  the  last  three  years, 
than  have  all  the  excesses  and  violences  in  either  of  the 
old  slave  States  to  disturb  the  harmonies  of  their  labor 
system.  The  Southern  States  are  now  all  restored  to  their 
proper  autonomies  ;  they  have  passed  out  of  the  chaotic 
condition  which  succeeded  the  war,  and  I  believe  a  new 
era  of  justice,  of  prosperity,  of  State  pride,  harmonious 
with  an  exalted  patriotism,  has  already  dawaied  upon 
them.  I  do  not  expect  to  see  South  Carolina  transformed 
into  a  Massachusetts,  nor  Mississippi  into  a  Vermont.  I 
know  that  the  institution  of  slavery  impressed  a  character 
upon  Southern  society  which  gave  a  distinct  type  to  its 
civilization.  We  see  it  in  the  violence  which  breaks  out 
in  their  own  feuds,  as  recently  in  Mississippi,  exhibiting 
atrocities  unsurpassed  by  Cossack  or  Turk.  But  I  know 
also  that  by  the  side  of  this  ruder  element  is  often  to  be 
found  a  culture,  a  social  sweetness,  a  manhood,  and  a 
devotedness  to  its  own  convictions  of  the  right  and  the 
true,  which  in  time  may  leaven  the  whole  lump,  and  afford 


DECORATION    DAY   AT   ATTICA.  I  55 

a  type  of  social  manners  and  of  political  justice  which,  if 
not  like  our  own,  will  act  in  happy  accord  with  it. 

One  thing  we  must  remember,  that  every  State  must 
work  out  its  own  destiny,  with  the  elements  it  has  in  hand. 
Our  federal  government  cannot  erect  a  Procrustean  bed 
of  Puritanism  or  of  Cavalierism,  a  social  aristocracy  or 
democracy  for  the  States.  It  can  assure  them  a  govern- 
ment republican  in  form,  and  can  aid  them  in  repressing 
internal  rebellions.  But  it  is  not  imperial  in  its  character; 
and  the  politician  or  the  statesman  who  sets  out  to  cast 
all  the  institutions  of  the  several  States  in  one  mould  to 
carry  out  any  theory,  social  or  political,  attempts  a  war 
upon  nature,  and  must  ignominiously  fail. 

My  friends,  when  on  Friday  last  I  read  in  the  evening 
telegraphic  reports  that  in  some  of  the  Southern  cities 
federal  troops  and  citizens  were  decorating  the  graves  of 
both  the  federal  and  confederate  dead,  I  felt  to  thank 
God  that  the  bitterness  between  the  North  and  the  South 
was  rapidly  passing  away,  and  that  a  war  which,  as  I  read 
it,  was  a  war  of  s}'stems  rather  than  of  men,  and  as  inevit- 
able as  the  destinies,  was  being  viewed  by  the  philosophic 
spirit  of  my  countrymen  rather  than  by  their  passions. 
And  when  so  contemplated,  the  war  through  its  results 
appears  an  element  of  national  strength  rather  than  of 
weakness.  Slavery  was  the  perpetual  source  of  discord 
and  disintegration.  That  eliminated,  the  moral  contro- 
versy is  at  an  end,  and  there  is  no  element  of  necessary 
antagonism  in  the  diversity  of  their  pursuits. 

The  most  sacred  memories  of  both  sections  are  a  com- 
mon possession  of  both  sections  of  the  country.  The 
great  names  of  the  revolutionary  period,  whether  of  the 
Carolinas  and  Virginia,  or  of  Massachusetts  and  New  York, 
are  the  property  of  both,  and  their  honor  is  a  national 
inheritance.     Let  us  to-day  be  just.     The  statesmanship 


156  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCEIJ.ANIES. 

wliich  forecast  the  future  wants  and  future  greatness  of 
the  repubhc  durin<4-  the  middle  period  of  its  history,  and 
prepared  to  meet  them,  had  a  Soutlicrn  ratlicr  than  a 
Northern  origin.  The  Louisiana  purchase  and  the  Mex- 
ican treaty,  which  must  ever  rank  among  the  transcendent 
acts  of  our  national  policy,  securing  to  us,  as  they  did,  the 
substantial  control  of  the  continent,  ending  forever  the 
possibilities  of  further  European  dominion  within  its 
limits,  and  offering  the  fullest  and  freest  development  of 
our  commerce  and  our  industries,  were  the  measures  of 
Southern  statesmen.  Separate  and  apart  from  the  slavery 
question,  which  was  a  selfish  interest  and  prompted  selfish 
action,  I  believe  the  character  for  purity  of  Southern 
members  of  the  national  congress,  in  matters  of  general 
legislation  prior  to  the  great  struggle,  suffered  nothing  in 
comparison  with  their  Northern  colleagues. 

And  now  that  the  element  of  discord  which  disturbed 
the  national  peace  for  a  generation  has  been  burned  up  in 
the  crucible  of  war, — the  method  of  Providence  in  all  ages 
for  the  purification  of  States, — I  see  nothing  in  the  future, 
unless  we  mar  it  by  uncharitableness  and  hate,  to  prevent 
a  career  of  individual  happiness  and  national  glory. 

We  must  remember  that,  after  securing  to  us  the  ordi- 
nary protection  of  the  laws,  it  is  very  little  a  government 
can  do  save  to  leave  its  people  free  to  develop  their  indi- 
vidual and  State  interests. 

It  cannot  stay  the  tempest  and  the  cyclone ;  it  cannot 
command  the  sunshine  and  the  rain ;  it  cannot  bid  the 
devouring  locusts  retreat  from  the  prairie  to  the  sea  ;  it 
cannot  control  those  commercial  crises  which  sweep,  as 
now  one  is  sweeping  all  round  the  globe,  prostrating  indus- 
tries on  every  hand,  and  bringing  want  and  ruin  in  its  train. 
It  is  no  miracle-worker,  and  its  own  limitations  it  cannot 


DECORATION   DAY   AT   ATTICA.  1 57 

transcend  in  times  of  peace  without  peril  to  itself  and  the 
national  interests. 

Let  us  not  then  expect  too  much  of  the  federal  govern- 
ment, and  let  us  be  content  to  allow  the  several  States  to 
develop  their  own  industries  and  their  own  social  and 
political  economies,  so  long  as  they  keep  within  the  rule 
of  the  organic  law,  as  their  needs  and  the  laws  of  trade 
and  industry  shall  determine.  In  no  other  way,  I  believe, 
can  the  federal  relations  be  happy  or  prosperous ;  in  no 
other  way  can  the  rights  of  States  or  their  self-respect  be 
preserved. 

My  friends,  I  do  not  believe  the  history  of  the  world 
could  reveal  to  us  any  people  of  such  vast  and  diversified 
interests,  so  loyal  to  order,  so  submissive  to  law,  as 
our  own. 

The  revolutionary  element  so  prominent  in  French  his- 
tory, and  which  has  appeared  so  menacingly  in  a  half- 
dozen  crises  in  Great  Britain  during  the  last  century,  has 
little  place  in  the  American  character.  We  won  honor  as 
a  nation  at  the  Centennial  Exposition,  where  American 
art  and  industry  placed  themselves  in  the  foreground  with 
the  most  advanced  nations.  We  have  won  honor  by  main- 
taining the  credit  of  the  nation  at  a  great  sacrifice,  accept- 
ing burthens  with  little  murmur  to  uphold  the  pledged 
faith  of  the  country.  But  I  think,  if  possible,  even  higher 
honor  was  won  for  the  nation  by  its  bearing  through  the 
last  presidential  crisis.  Rarely  has  occurred  a  better 
opportunity  or  a  readier  pretext  for  a  civil  strife.  Such  a 
crisis  would  have  enveloped  France  wath  revolutionary 
fires.  It  would  have  given  a  shock  to  the  stability  of  the 
British  government  that  would  have  been  felt  all  round 
the  globe.  But  amid  the  intensity  of  individual  and  party 
disappointments,  after  a  struggle  for  months  to  retain 
power  on  the  one  hand  and  to  win  it  on  the  other,  under 


158  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

circumstances  well  calculated  to  put  to  the  crucial  test  the 
moderation  of  the  defeated  part)',  the  world  beheld  a 
spectacle  of  obedience  to  law,  of  acquiescence  in  the 
decision  of  the  tribunal  invoked  to  settle  the  controversy, 
which  taught  ourselves  and  taught  the  world  that,  if 
self-government  be  an  impossibility  elsewhere,  here  it  is 
assured,  and  that  revolution  and  anarchy  have  no  place 
among  us.  I  speak  not  of  the  right  or  wrong.  I  speak 
but  of  the  fact,  and  of  that  as  indicative  of  the  reserve 
power  in  the  national  respect  for  order  and  law. 

When  I  contemplate  the  dynastic  wars  which  for 
centuries  desolated  Europe ;  when  I  see  France  after  all 
her  bitter  experience  with  foreign  and  domestic  wars 
trembling  on  the  verge  of  a  fresh  revolution  evoked  by 
the  fatal  coup  d\^tat ;  when  I  see  all  Europe  to-day  pre- 
paring for  one  of  those  great  balance-of-power  struggles, 
which  until  the  passions  of  men  and  the  aggressions  of 
States  have  been  subdued  by  some  principle  as  yet  pow- 
erless to  restrain,  must  continue  a  disturbing  element  in 
European  States ;  when  I  see  the  Colossus  of  the  north 
of  Europe,  whose  symbols  of  power  from  the  time  of  Peter 
the  Great  to  Alexander  II.  have  been  the  knout  and  the 
blood-stained  highway  to  Siberia  ;  in  whose  record  of 
the  present  century  is  to  be  found  the  infamous  partition 
of  Poland  and  her  alliance  with  Austria  against  the 
liberties  of-  Hungary,  a  power  whose  restless  foot  has 
carried  the  flag  of  conquest  to  the  borders  of  China  on 
the  one  hand,  and  nearly  one  thousand  miles  on  her 
southern  and  western  march  to  dominion  on  the  other ; 
when  I  see  her  repeating  her  war  of  conquest  under  the 
pretext  of  defending  the  principle  of  religious  toleration, 
which  she  never  hesitated  to  violate  when  her  bigotry  or 
her  ambition  has  incited  to  such  violation  ;  when  I  see 
the  stormy  controversies  among  the    overcrowded  popu- 


DECORATION   DAY   AT   ATTICA.  I  59 

lation  of  Europe,  between  capital  and  labor  ;  when  I  see 
hunger  and  famine  in  the  far  East  pressing  sore  the 
millions  who  know  not  where  to  turn  for  succor,  the  great 
forces  of  nature,  as  well  as  the  ambitions  of  rulers  seem- 
ing to  conspire  to  make  more  wretched  their  impover- 
ished people,  and  when  I  then  turn  to  my  own  land,  with 
its  illimitable  grain-bearing  prairies,  with  its  boundless 
avenues  of  commerce,  its  government  entering  upon  its 
second  century,  more  firmly  established  in  the  hearts  of 
the  people  than  ever  before,  with  no  internal  element  of 
discord,  with  no  balance-of-power  question  to  imperil  its 
peace  on  the  right-hand  or  on  the  left  ;  when  I  see  above 
our  stormy  politics  and  above  the  selfishness  of  men, 
above  the  lesser  conflicts  which  are  incident  to  all  free 
States  and  which  furnish  a  safe  outlet  for  the  passions 
generated  by  the  struggles  of  a  democracy ;  when,  above 
these,  I  see  sovereign  law  and  constitutional  authority  in 
the  clear  blue  of  the  American  heavens  recognized,  rever- 
enced and  obeyed,  I  thank  God  for  the  deliverance  of  the 
past  and  for  the  exceptional  career  to  which  the  future 
invites  us !  Forty  millions  of  people  with  homogeneous 
institutions  and  free,  with  the  widest  liberty  of  person 
compatible  with  private  justice  and  public  order,  with 
education  brought  to  every  man's  door,  and  with  a  re- 
ligion which  goes  hand  in  hand  with  art  and  culture,  and 
is  the  inspiration  of  the  sweetest  charities  of  the  land,  I 
see  no  limit  to  its  possibilities  of  individual  happiness 
and  national  glory ! 

They  will  not  build  their  empire  on  hates,  but  on 
charity  and  good  will,  and  on  that  fraternal  sentiment 
which  must  flow  from  common  interests  and  a  common 
destiny. 

How  petty  seem  the  controversies  of  partisanship,  the 
ambitions  of  individuals,  the  craft  and  cunning  of  polit- 


l6o  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

ical  organizations,  whicli  are  temporary,  the  vanishiiiL;- 
shadows  upon  the  dial  of  the  centuiy,  when  contrasted 
with  the  permanent  institutions  of  a  State  deep-rooted  in 
the  affections,  the  traditions,  and  the  interests  of  a  people. 
As  individuals  we  build  but  for  a  day,  and  our  egotisms 
and  our  vanities  perish  with  our  generation.  But  a  State 
founded  in  justice,  administered  with  justice,  and  sus- 
tained by  the  patriotism  of  its  people,  reflects  the  Divine 
government  which  rules  the  world,  and  may  be  abiding 
as  civilization. 

O,  my  friends,  how  good  it  is  to  be  here,  amid  the 
graves  of  our  patriot  dead,  and  amid  the  graves  of  those 
without  whose  life  many  of  us  had  never  been,  and  whose 
sacrifices  and  toils  rescued  a  wilderness  from  its  savage 
waste,  and  secured  for  us  this  inheritance  of  beauty  and 
gladness  ! 

These  scenes  to-day  are  to  me  sacred  and  holy.  The 
Divinity  seems  very  near  to  us,  and  there  is  no  place  for 
any  other  sentiments  than  reverence  and  love.  May 
this  day  ever  remain  consecrated  to  the  memories  which 
now  fill  all  our  hearts,  and  to  these  tender  offices  of 
gratitude  and  love. 


DEATH    OF   LINCOLN.  l6l 


DEATH    OF    LINCOLN. 

Address  of  American  Citizens  in  Paris  (France),  May  4,  1865. 


[A  number  of  gentlemen  representing  the  most  influential  American 
families  in  Paris,  assembled  yesterday  afternoon  at  the  United  States  Lega- 
tion for  the  purpose  of  presenting  to  his  Excellency  Mr.  Bigelow  the  sub- 
joined address  of  condolence,  bearing  upwards  of  three  hundred  signa- 
tures, on  the  national  loss,  which  all  America  is  now  deploring,  in  the 
person  of  President  Lincoln. — Gallignani' s  Messenger.^ 

To  His  Excellency   John  Bigelow, 

Envoy  Extraordinary,  etc. 

Sir:  We  have  learned  with  the  most  profound  emotion 
that  our  beloved  late  chief  magistrate  is  no  more.  That 
at  the  height  of  his  fame  and  usefulness  he  has  been 
stricken  down  by  an  assassin's  hand.  Our  joy  over  the 
nation's  deliverance  from  the  horrors  of  civil  war,  is  turned 
into  mourning  by  an  event  shocking  to  humanity,  and 
lamented  by  every  friend  of  liberty  and  law.  Separated 
as  we  are,  temporarily,  from  our  native  land,  and  stand- 
ing amid  the  hospitable  altars  of  a  people  associated 
with  our  most  cherished  traditions,  our  hearts  impel  us 
to  give  some  expression,  through  you,  of  our  sorrow  and 
our  sympathy.  We  beg  to  assure  you  that  we  share  the 
grief  that  fills  the  hearts  of  our  countrymen  at  home,  and 
mourn  with  them  the  loss  of  the  illustrious  citizen,  the 
wise  magistrate,  the  just,  pure  and  good  man. 

Yet  while  we  mourn  this  incalcuable  loss,  we  would 
gratefully  remember  that  Providence  which  spared  him 
to  his  country  until  he  had  successfully  guided  us  so 
near  the  end  of  the  strife.     His  firmness,  his  justice  ever 


1 62  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

tempered  with  merc\',  his  faith  in  the  dignity  and  rights 
of  man,  and  his  absorbing  patriotism,  were  the  inspira- 
tions of  his  official  Hfe,  and,  under  God,  have  afforded  us 
the  happy  vision  of  approaching  peace  and  a  restored 
union. 

Four  years  ago  he  was  wholly  unknown  to  the  world 
at  large,  and,  except  in  his  own  State,  had  yet  to  win 
the  confidence  of  his  fellow-citizens.  To-day,  after  an 
ordeal  as  severe  as  ever  tested  ability  and  character,  he 
is  universally  accepted  as  one  of  the  few  born  to  shape 
the  best  destinies  of  States,  and  to  make  the  most  pow- 
erful impress  for  good  upon  the  fortunes  of  the  human 
race.  If  it  was  not  reserved  for  him  to  create  a  nation, 
he  was  called  most  conspicuously  to  aid  in  preserving 
one  against  the  most  formidable  armed  conspiracy  ever 
aimed  at  the  life  of  a  State.  If  in  the  completeness  of 
our  institutions  it  was  not  his  office  to  add  to  the  safe- 
guards of  liberty  for  his  own  race,  it  will  be  his  undying 
glory  to  have  lifted  four  millions  of  a  feeble  and  long 
unbefriended  people  from  bondage  to  the  dignity  of 
personal  freedom. 

The  rights  of  humanity  at  last  are  vindicated,  and  our 
country  is  relieved  of  its  great  reproach.  Already  the 
world  is  claiming  for  itself  this  last  martyr  to  the  cause 
of  freedom,  and  Abraham  Lincoln  has  taken  his  place 
among  the  moral  constellations  which  shall  impart  light 
and  life  to  all  coming  generations  of  men. 

We  would  here  gratefully  remember  the  words  of  sym- 
pathy for  our  country,  and  respect  for  the  fallen,  uttered 
with  united  voice  by  the  rulers  and  people  of  Europe. 
We  believe  this  event,  which  all  humanity  mourns,  will 
strengthen  the  tie  of  friendship  which  should  ever  unite 
the  brotherhood  of  States. 


DEATH    OF   LINCOLN.  1 63 

We  would  not  in  this  address  say  more  of  the  assassin 
than  express  our  abhorrence  of  his  dreadful  crime,  but 
we  lovingly  remember  that  the  last  utterances  of  him  we 
mourn,  were  words  of  clemency  toward  the  defeated 
enemies  of  his  country.  "  With  charity  to  all,  and  malice 
for  none,"  he  was  superior  to  revenge.  "  Peace  and 
union ! "  These  secured,  there  was  little  place  in  his 
heart  for  the  severities  of  justice.  It  was  this  gentleness, 
united  to  an  integrity  and  unselfishness  of  character 
never  surpassed,  that  won  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen. 
We  mourn  not  only  the  magistrate  we  revered,  but  the 
friend  we  loved. 

It  is  not  for  us  to  scrutinize  the  d'ealings  of  a  just  God  ; 
we  bow  before  His  dispensations  when  least  intelligible 
to  human  wisdom.  But  in  sealing  with  his  blood  the 
work  to  which  he  was  called,  Mr.  Lincoln  has,  we  believe, 
been  the  means  of  placing  upon  more  imperishable 
foundations,  the  unity,  the  glory,  and  the  beneficent 
power  of  our  beloved  country.  And  if  there  be  inspira- 
tion in  high  example,  we  know  that  his  wise  and  up- 
right policy  in  all  our  domestic  and  foreign  relations,  will 
be  an  additional  guarantee  for  peace,  charity  and  justice 
throughout  the  civilized  world. 

We  beg  to  assure  you,  and,  through  you,  Mrs.  Lincoln 
and  her  family,  of  our  deep  sympath)^  in  this  their  hour 
of  affliction.  We  know  how  inadequate  is  all  human 
consolation,  but  it  is  grateful  to  us  to  assure  the  bereaved, 
that  we  mourn  with  them  their  irreparable  loss. 

To  the  honored  Secretary  of  State,  Mr.  Seward,  whose 
death  was  also  purposed,  and  the  Assistant  Secretary, 
Mr.  Frederick  W.  Seward,  and  their  families,  we  wish 
also  to  express  our  sympathy  in  view  of  their  great  perils 
and  suffering. 


164  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

We  deem  it  fitting  also  to  express  to  our  distinguished 
fellow-citizen  who  succeeds  to  the  chief  magistracy,  our 
sense  of  the  trying  circumstances  under  which  he  is  called 
to  his  new  trust.  We  find  in  the  record  of  his  long  and 
useful  public  career,  the  basis  of  the  most  perfect  confi- 
dence in  his  ability,  his  justice,  and  his  patriotism. 

We  beg  you,  sir,  to  assure  our  fellow-countrymen,  and 
the  more  immediate  sufferers  by  the  terrible  tragedy,  and 
the  president,  of  these  our  most  heartfelt  sentiments. 

We  have  the  honor,  sir,  to  be,  very  respectfully,  your 
obedient  servants. 


BIRTHDAY   OF   WASHINGTON.  l6$ 


BIRTHDAY   OF   WASHINGTON. 

Oration  delivered   in   Paris  (France),  February   22,  1866. 


[The  Americans  in  Paris  observed  the  twenty-second  of  February,  by 
commemorative  exercises  in  the  American  chapel  in  the  rue  de  Berri.  The 
religious  portion  of  the  service  was  conducted  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Lamson,  of 
the  American  Episcopal  Church,  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Burlingham,  of  the 
American  chapel. —  Gallignani's  Messenger. 1 

Countrywomen  and  Countrymen : 

Upon  the  banks  of  the  Potomac,  which  for  four  years 
have  been  swept  by  the  desolating  storms  of  war,  where 
tens  of  thousands  of  the  brav^est  sons  of  the  Republic 
have  gone  down  in  the  shock  of  fratricidal  strife,  is  one 
sacred  spot  in  the  presence  of  which  War  has  forgotten  its 
passion,  and  assumed,  for  the  moment,  the  virtues  of 
white-robed  Peace. 

A  simple  tomb  there  marks  the  place  where  Liberty 
has  erected  her  chosen  altar  on  this  earth.  Thanks  be  to 
God  for  that  altar !  Thanks  be  to  God  that  every  Ameri- 
can heart  that  pulsates  lovingly  toward  the  Father  of 
his  Country — and  whose  does  not  ? — may  claim  that  altar 
for  his  own  !  Let  us,  on  this  day,  with  reverent  step  and 
worshipful  feeling,  approach  it  with  votive  offerings.  Let 
us  come  as  Americans,  who  still  have  one  country  and 
one  destiny,  and  unite  with  our  countrymen  all  over  the 
globe,  in  acts  of  grateful  commemoration.  In  this  land, 
united  to  our  own  by  the  most  cherished  traditions,  and 
which  from  mothers'  lips  we  learned  to  love,  let  us  unite 
in    devout    thanksgiving,    that    the    Temple    of    Liberty 


l66  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

erected  by  Washington  and  his  compeers,  stands  to-day, 
after  its  fier)'  trial,  more  firm  in  its  foundations,  more  fair 
in  its  beauty,  its  portals  thrown  more  widely  open  for  the 
solace  and  refuge  of  humanity. 

The  modern  history  of  our  country  naturally  falls  into 
three  periods ;  each  having  its  distinct  idea,  each  having 
its  struggle  for  the  ascendency  of  that  idea,  and  each  its 
own  final  victory  in  that  struggle. 

The  first,  the  colonial  period,  beginning  with  the  earli- 
est settlements  along  the  Atlantic  coast,  settlements 
prompted  by  the  holiest  motives  that  ever  inspired  human 
conduct,— the  free  worship  of  God.  Religious  toleration 
was  one  of  the  chief  questions  which  agitated  Europe  at 
the  close  of  the  sixteenth  and  the  beginning  of  the  seven- 
teenth centuries. 

The  issue  made  upon  it  was  the  "  irrepressible  conflict  " 
of  the  time  between  the  people  and  kings  and  hierar- 
chies, which,  though  waged  long  and  bitterly,  ended  at 
last,  as  must  every  conflict  upon  which  the  rights  of 
humanity  are  upon  the  one  side,  and  the  authority  of 
prescriptive  power  on  the  other.  A  partial  solution  of 
that  question  is  to  be  found  in  the  settlement  of  the  Pil- 
grims in  New  England,  and  of  the  Huguenots  in  South 
Carolina. 

That  transition  period,  after  innumerable  perils,  and 
struggles,  and  sacrifices,  culminated  in  the  second,  of 
which  Washington  is  the  central  figure.  As  the  idea  of 
the  first  was  religious  liberty,  or  the  right  of  man  to 
worship  God  after  his  own  conscience,  so  the  idea  of  the 
second  was  political  liberty,  or  the  right  of  associated 
man  to  live  under  governments  and  constitutions  which 
had  received  his  assent. 

The  Declaration  of  Independence,  the  solemn  pledge 
of  the  thirteen  colonies,  of  life,  fortune  and  sacred  honor, 


BIRTHDAY    OF   WASHINGTON.  167 

to  tlie  cause,  and  the  appeal  from  parliaments  to  the  God 
of  battles,  introduced  the  era  of  the  revolution. 

To  create  a  nation,  was  the  purpose  for  which  Wash- 
ington was  summoned  to  the  military  leadership.  How 
well  he  justified  that  confidence  ;  how,  with  a  patience 
that  never  wearied,  a  watchfulness  that  never  slumbered, 
a  thoughtfulness  that  made  him  a  felt  presence. wherever 
there  was  danger  to  be  confronted  or  strategy  to  be  foiled, 
he  led  the  seven  years'  struggle  to  a  successful  end,  the 
world  knows  by  heart. 

To  the  civil  administration  of  the  country,  Washington, 
though  full  of  a  modest  self-distrust,  brought  the  same 
great  qualities  which  had  marked  his  military  career. 
His  advent  to  the  chief  magistracy  occurred  at  a  period 
when  only  consummate  wisdom  and  commanding  influ- 
ence could  save  the  new  government  from  new  perils. 

The  leaders  of  the  revolution  had  come  out  of  the 
conflict  with  opposing  opinions,  earnest  as  revolution 
always  creates,  which  rapidly  arrayed  themselves  into 
hostile  parties.  Yet  Washington,  by  his  prudence  and 
by  that  greatness  of  character  that  awes  even  faction  into 
duty,  kept  the  storm  at  bay  during  his  whole  administra- 
tion, until  the  new  government  had  obtained  solidity  to 
endure  the  shock  of  parties  for  which  his  retirement  was 
the  signal. 

Long  before  he  bade  adieu  to  the  responsibilities  of 
public  life,  Washington  had  taken  his  position  in  the 
esteem  of  the  world  as  a  character  unequalled  for  those 
qualities  which  command  the  admiration  and  reverence 
of  mankind. 

That  position  broadens  and  strengthens  with  every  suc- 
ceeding generation.  The  orb  of  his  fame,  now  in  the  mid 
heavens,  will  increase  in  lustre  and  in  its  power  of  attrac- 
tion to  the  end  of  time. 


l68  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

Let  US  say,  and  it  is  to  tlic  honor  of  our  race,  that  it  is 
to  the  moral  greatness  of  Washington,  which  crowned  so 
regally  his  military  and  civic  virtues,  that  this  universal 
homage  has  been  paid.  '  Acting  by  the  ordinary  rules  of 
human  conduct,  he  would  have  deemed  it  legitimate  to 
make  his  trusts  instrumental  to  his  personal  aggrandize- 
ment. But  wholly  undazzled  by  public  adulation,  superior 
to  every  temptation  which  could  influence  personal  ambi- 
tion, he  never  swerved  from  the  single  purpose  of  his 
career,  the  triumph  of  the  principles  and  objects  of  the 
revolution.  Having  secured  national  independence  and 
peace,  he  withdrew  from  all  public  relations,  refusing 
every  solicitation  to  allow  his  grateful  country  to  renew 
its  tribute  of  affection  and  confidence. 

There  is  one  element  of  character  which,  whenever  or 
wherever  exhibited,  however  material  or  selfish  may  be 
the  age  in  which  it  appears,  never  fails  of  popular  admi- 
ration. Vice  itself  cannot  withhold  its  tribute  to  a  self- 
sacrificing  devotion  to  the  public  weal. 

"  Look  upward  to  the  law,  and  not  downward  to  your 
own  happiness  and  wants,"  said  Schiller,  in  his  address  to 
the  artists  whom  he  would  teach  how  to  realize  their 
ideals. 

It  was  the  controlling  principle  of  Washington  so  to 
"  look  upward,"  with  no  thought  of  himself,  save  to  be 
clear  in  his  great  office.  It  is  not  surprising,  when  we 
remember  how  often  military  power  and  popular  regard 
have  created  selfish  aspirations,  that  his  career  should 
have  changed,  as  it  has  been  said  to  have  done,  "  man- 
kinifs  idea  of  political  greatness ;''  that  it  should  have 
transferred  human  adoration  from  the  material  to  the 
moral,  from  conquests  of  States  and  Kingdoms  to  the 
greater  conquest  of  man  over  himself.  It  is  sometimes 
said   that   the   elements  of  greatness  rarely  appear,  and 


BIRTHDAY   OF   WASHINGTON.  1 69 

that  an  age  is  made  heroic  by  a  character  who  dies  and 
leaves  no  successor.  May  we  not  take  a  more  hopeful 
view  ?  Rather,  is  it  not  true  that  there  is  a  Divinity  ever 
shaping  human  ends,  and  that  whenever  a  nation's  hour 
arrives,  the  man  appears  witli  it.  A  great  man  has  been 
well  said  to  be  "  the  secret  of  God."  Such  a  secret  was 
hidden  among  us  for  fifty  years.  How  soon  after  the 
opening  of  our  late  drama,  in  which  thirty  millions  were 
actors,  did  we  discover  that  Washington  had  a  successor, 
now  with  him  in  the  upper  sky,  to  be  forever  his  co-heir 
of  fame.  The  field  of  God  is  richer  than  we  know.  Let 
us  have  faith  in  its  timely  blossoming  and  fruitage. 

With  the  administration  of  Washington  began  the  third 
leading  period,  the  close  of  which,  and  the  entrance  of  the 
nation  upon  a  new  career,  constitute  the  last  chapter  in  our 
national  history.  I  do  not  forget  the  character  of  this  oc- 
casion, but  I  should  come  short  of  your  expectations,  and 
of  the  duty  your  kindness  has  imposed,  were  I  wholly  to 
overlook  the  events  which  have  culminated  in  the  most 
stupendous  conflict  of  modern  times.  Let  us  "  with  mal- 
ice towards  none  and  charity  for  all,"  briefly  consider  this 
last  epoch  in  our  history,  and  our  present  attitude  to  the 
interest  and  relations  it  involves.  Let  us  review  it  with 
something  of  the  calmness  with  which  it  will  be  studied 
by  the  future,  and  seek,  if  possible,  the  principle  which 
underlies  it. 

If  there  be  one  controlling  law  of  modern  society,  it  is 
the  law  of  social  and  political  amelioration.  To  build 
better  than  they  knew,  has  been  the  happy  fortune  of  all 
reformers.  When  our  fathers  announced  the  proposition 
that  all  men  were  created  free  and  equal  before  the  law, 
with  a  "  right  to  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happi- 
ness," they  announced  a  principle  in  advance  of  the 
polity  of  their  time,  and  which  to  themselves  might  have 
12 


170  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

appeared  rather  a  "  glittering  generalit}'  "  than  an  abso- 
lute truth.  Yet  it  was  a  principle  \\hich  must  sooner  or 
later  overthrow  all  our  institutions  not  in  harmony  with 
itself,  for  it  involved  a  political  truth,  and  truth,  though 
late,  must  be  victor  at  last  : 

"  The  eternal  years  of  God  are  hers." 

While  our  fathers  were  justifying  their  revolution  by  this 
principle,  they  were  holding  their  fellow-men  in  bondage, 
and  afterwards  protected  by  their  organic  law  the  institu- 
tion of  slavery.  You  know  the  history  of  the  conflict  which 
soon  arose  between  the  opposing  forces,  the  free  idea  and 
the  slave  idea,  which,  with  ever-widening  circles,  embraced 
at  last  every  social  coterie,  every  Church  organization, 
every  State  legislature.  Each  new  acquisition  of  terri- 
tory became  a  new  element  of  discord,  and  a  new  theatre 
of  strategy  and  violence.  You  remember  the  efforts  of 
great  and  good  men  to  heal  the  strife  by  compromise,  and 
the  efforts  of  other  great  and  good  men  to  secure  ulti- 
mate peace  through  a  resistance  of  all  the  new  claims  and 
aggressions  of  the  institution,  insisting  that  there  could 
be  no  lasting  compromise  between  forces  so  hostile  as  free- 
dom and  slavery.  The  latter  events  of  the  struggle,  are 
they  not  written  in  imperishable  characters  on  the  bosom 
of  a  continent  ? 

In  adjusting  the  measure  of  responsibility  for  the  causes 
of  the  late  rebellion,  we  should  not  forget  that  our  fathers 
were  not  responsible  for  the  introduction  of  slavery  into 
the  country ;  that  it  had  taken  root  in  the  colonial  policy 
of  England  before  Christianity  had  its  best  development 
in  institutions  and  laws.  Let  us  be  just  to  human  nature, 
and  recognize  the  further  fact,  that  by  degrees  slavery 
had  incorporated  itself  with  every  element  of  national 
wealth,  political  power  and  social  consideration,  through- 


BIRTHDAY   OF   WASHINGTON.  I71 

out  the  States  recently  in  revolt,  and  while  we  hold  it 
responsible  for  all  the  woes  and  all  the  crimes  which  have 
followed  in  the  track  of  our  civil  war,  while  we  abate  not 
one  jot  of  our  abhorrence  of  the  act  of  treason  against  a 
government  which  has  scrupulously  discharged  all  its  con- 
stitutional obligations,  let  us  remember  that  the  history 
of  the  world  affords  not  a  single  instance  of  an  aristoc- 
racy of  privilege  coming  voluntarily  to  the  altar,  either 
of  patriotism  or  of  humanity,  to  make  a  burnt  offering  of 
that  privilege.  There  have  been  lesser,  but  ever  reluc- 
tant concessions  in  obedience  to  an  admitted  principle, 
but  the  principle  itself  has  been  conceded  only  on  the 
perilous  edge  of  battle. 

Man's  regeneration  has  ever  come  as  comes  the  King- 
dom of  Heaven,  "  by  violence,"  "  and  the  violent  take  it 
by  force."  With  these  facts  in  our  view,  are  we  not  pre- 
pared to  anticipate  the  verdict  of  history,  that,  wholly 
unprovoked  as  was  our  civil  war  by  any  interference  with 
the  constitutional  rights  of  the  South,  it  was  not  the 
wholly  unnatural  conclusion  of  the  conflict  between  the 
principle  of  force  derived  from  the  pagan  ages,  and  the 
principle  of  freedom  reflected  from  every  precept  of  our 
most  holy  religion. 

Thoughtful  men  looking  on  from  a  distance,  and  out- 
side the  currents  of  passion,  saw  the  foreshadowings  of 
our  just  concluded  strife. 

"  It  is  the  first  blow  in  a  great  civil  war,"  said  the  late 
Sir  Corncwall  Lewis,  when  commenting  upon  the  tragedy 
enacted  in  the  senate  hall,  upon  Senator  Sumner,  by 
Brooks  of  South  Carolina.  In  a  letter  addressed  to  the 
same  distinguished  statesman  by  M.  de  Tocqueville,  than 
whom  our  country  and  its  institutions  never  had  a  firmer 
friend,  after  the  presidential  conflict  in  1856,  occurs  this 
remarkable  prophecy : 


172  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

I  agree  with  you  that  the  results  of  this  election  must  put 
the  Union  upon  a  course  that  must  lead  to  civil  war,  and  the 
men  of  the  South  threaten  so  great  an  evil,  not  only  to  their 
own  country,  but  to  all  humanity,  that  the  friends  of  America, 
and  I  am  of  their  number,  would  desire  their  check,  even  at 
the  expense  of  a  new  war,  over  those  territories  where  war  has 
long  been  unknown. 

Philosophy  was  teaching  these  men  by  historic  example, 
what  we  did  not  believe  till  we  heard  the  booming  of  that 
fatal  gun  shotted  for  the  walls  of  Fort  Sumter. 

For  what  purpose  this  review?  To  enable  us  to  recog- 
nize the  law  of  progress,  and  the  method  of  Providence 
with  great  national  wrongs. 

Why  should  we  expect  to  constitute  an  exception  to 
the  universal  law  ?  Why  should  we  fail  to  see  that  when 
slavery,  to  resist  the  advancing  tide  of  public  opinion,  and 
to  extend  and  perpetuate  its  empire,  made  its  appeal  to  the 
ordeal  which  has  settled  every  great  struggle  between  right 
and  wrong,  it  only  carried  to  its  logical  results  that  con- 
flict which  was  "  irrepressible,"  and  which  could  end  only 
by  the  voluntary  or  involuntary  destruction  of  one  of  the 
forces.  Religious  intolerance,  and  the  servitude  imposed 
by  the  feudal  system,  have  more  than  once  gone  down, 
not  by  voluntary  surrender,  but  before  armed  opinions 
victorious  in  the  battle-field.  Let  us  not  be  amateur  stu- 
dents of  history.  War  has  often  been  the  great  Assize  of 
God,  before  which  He  has  bid  nations  stand  and  answer 
for  crimes  against  His  justice. 

Its  fires  have  often  been  fires  of  purgation  in  which  He 
has  burned  and  consumed  systems  and  institutions  in 
conflict  with  His  law.  Yes  ;  we  have  been  re-enacting 
an  oft-repeated  drama,  a  drama  ever  attended  by  infinite 
suffering  and  infinite  woe.  Yet,  while  we  realize  the  suffer- 
ing and  the  woe,  let  us  not  forget  that  amid  the  war  of 


BIRTHDAY    OF   WASHINGTON.  1/3 

opinions,  the  convulsions  of  society,  and  the  storms  of 
revolutionary  violence,  humanity  does  not  die,  but  with 
all  her  train  of  virtues,  and  all  her  symbols  of  power, 
moves  onward  and  onward.  Individuals  perish,  insti- 
tutions are  purified,  man .  is  disappointed,  God  is  not 
cheated.  Life  issues  from  death,  progress  from  apparent 
retrogression. 

Sweet  are  the  uses  of  political  adversity.  The  precious 
jewel  for  us  is  to  be  found  in  that  new  charter  of  liberty 
which  has  invested  four  millions  of  our  fellow-men  with 
the  priceless  gift  of  personal  freedom.  Our  institutions  are 
henceforth  to  be  homogeneous  and  in  harmony  with  the 
divine  law.  The  nation  enters  upon  a  new  era.  She  has 
"  cast  off  the  old  and  wrinkled  skin  of  corruption,"  and 
we  seem  to  realize  the  vision  of  Milton,  when,  in  a  period 
of  civil  commotion,  he  looked  behind  the  storm-cloud, 
and  anticipated  the  future  glory  of  his  country: 

Methinks  I  see  in  my  mind  a  noble  and  puissant  nation, 
rousing  herself  like  a  strong  man  after  sleep  and  shaking  his 
invincible  locks !  Methinks  I  see  her  as  an  eagle,  mewing  her 
mighty  youth,  and  kindling  her  undazzled  eyes  at  the  full  mid- 
day beam,  purging  and  unsealing  her  long-abused  sight  at  the 
fountain  itself  of  heavenly  radiance. 

The  evil  spirit  having  been  cast  out  of  the  nation,  rend- 
ing and  tearing  the  victim  as  it  went,  we  find  ourselves  in 
the  midst  of  new  questions,  and  new  relations,  demand- 
ing the  highest  wisdom  and  the  calmest  statesmanship. 

Reconstruction,  after  so  desolating  a  war  overwhelming 
in  its  course  all  the  deep-rooted  systems  and  relations  of 
labor  in  the  South,  and  generating  the  bitterness  and 
hatred  inseparable  from  a  civil  strife,  becomes  the  one- 
controlling  duty  of  the  day.  The  past  we  cannot  heal ;  it 
is  the  living  present  with  which  we  have  to  do.     I  will  not 


1/4  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

ask  upon  what  political  terms,  for  this  is  not  the  place  for 
such  discussion,  but  v>'ith  what  sentiments  should  wc  be 
prepared  to  receive  again  our  Southern  brethren  to  the 
fold  of  the  Union  ?  Having  overthrown  the  cause  which 
alienated  us,  shall  we  now  needlessly  strengthen  and  per- 
petuate the  jealousies  and  animosities  of  the  past  ?  Or, 
shall  we,  remembering  the  spirit  which  united  our  fathers 
in  the  seven  years'  struggle  for  independence  ;  remember- 
ing how  much  of  the  national  progress  has  been  a  com- 
mon pride,  and  is  now  a  glory  inseparable  from  every  old 
State  ;  remembering  that  we  long  followed  and  loved  the 
same  flag ;  that  we  now  worship  the  same  God  at  the 
same  altars,  and  that  friendship,  and  love,  and  every  sen- 
timent that  beautifies  the  spirit  of  modern  society,  have 
made  sacred  innumerable  associations  between  every  gen- 
eration of  the  North  and  South,  from  the  revolutionary 
period  down  to  the  very  hour  that  saw  the  sections  in 
hostile  array — shall  we  now  be  oblivious  of  that  past,  and 
refusing  our  hearts  and  our  reasonable  confidence  to  our 
brethren,  sacrifice  every  common  and  sacred  recollection 
upon  the  altar  of  Revenge  ?  Shall  we  not  rather  sink 
both  the  god  and  the  altar  in  the  dust,  and,  invoking 
the  spirit  of  Washington,  and  guided  by  his  counsels, 
march  with  them,  hand  in  hand,  in  this  new  and  better 
era  of  the  republic,  to  its  great  moral  victoVies  and  its 
high  destinies  ?  Every  worthy  consideration  seems  to 
prompt  us  to  meet  the  great  body  of  our  Southern  breth- 
ren in  the  spirit  of  charity  and  fraternal  kindness.  It  is 
the  highest  wisdom  to  adopt  a  social  and  public  policy 
that  shall  secure  a  Union  stronger  than  standing  armies 
can  guarantee — a  union  of  common  interests,  common 
ideas,  and  common  affections.  If  there  be  wounds  which 
cannot  be  healed  during  the  present  generation,  and  this 
it  is  easy  to  suppose,  shall  we,  by  a  vindictive  and  unnec- 


BIRTHDAY   OF   WASHINGTON.  1/5 

essarily  distrustful  policy  and  bearing,  keep  them  ever 
open  and  unhealed  ?  Civil  war  has  more  than  once 
proved  a  source  of  national  strength  and  permanence, 
rather  than  of  weakness  and  decline.  The  most  solid 
States  of  Europe  have  been  theatres  of  civil  wars,  never 
surpassed  in  their  hates  or  ferocities.  If  there  be  a  gen- 
eral harmony  in  their  political  and  social  systems,  there 
is  no  animosity  that  will  not,  in  time,  yield  to  a  persistent, 
wise  policy.  Such  a  policy  England  adopted  towards 
Scotland,  and  the  throne  of  Victoria  has  no  firmer  pillar 
of  support  than  the  northern  portion  of  her  kingdom. 
Many  of  her  wisest  statesmen,  from  Burke  to  Macaulay 
and  Bright,  have  lamented  the  adoption  of  a  policy  of 
distrust  in  her  government  of  Ireland,  and  at  this  very 
hour,  imprisonment  and  exile  are  closing  the  first  act  of 
an  oft-repeated  and  ever-menacing  national  tragedy.  If 
by  a  vindictive  policy  we  could  recall  to  life  the  noble 
army  of  martyrs,  who,  on  battle-field,  in  hospitals,  and  in 
loathsome  prison-houses,  have  yielded  up  their  lives  in 
defense  of  the  flag  and  the  hopes  it  enfolds,  we  could 
find  a  motive  for  assuming  the  attitude  of  avenging 
conquerors. 

I  cannot  here  forget  that  the  South,  by  its  war  of 
offense  in  behalf  of  the  institution  which  had  coiled  its 
poisonous  folds  over  its  whole  social  and  political  organ- 
ization, has  already  paid  a  penalty  which  might  well  touch 
with  pity  the  heart  even  of  revenge.  I  hear  her  Rachels 
weeping  in  every  household,  because  their  children  are 
not ;  I  see  her  fields  desolated,  her  wealth  dissipated,  and 
herself  discrowned  of  that  sectional  prestige  and  power 
which  made  her  for  sixty  years  supreme  in  the  councils 
of  the  republic.  When  I  see  South  Carolina  among  the 
first  to  acquiesce  in  the  decision  of  war,  making  univer- 
sal emancipation   the  new  and  corner-stone  of  her  State 


IjG  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

edifice,  learning,  though  late,  that  it  was  not  Fort  Sumter 
against  which  she  aimed  her  artillery,  on  that  fatal  April 
day  in  i86i,  but  the  heart  of  the  nineteenth  century 
shielded  by  the  buckler  of  God — I  recur  to  a  past  when 
South  Carolina,  and  Massachusetts,  and  Virginia  were  the 
triple  cord  of  our  colonial  strength,  when  their  sons  stood 
shoulder  to  shoulder  throughout  that  seven  years'  strife, 
when  together  they  laid  the  foundations  of  our  national 
edifice,  cementing  it  with  the  blood  of  heroes,  and  I 
invoke  the  spirit  of  that  sacred  past  to  guide  the  nation's 
future. 

I  know  how  much  the  attitude  the  South  shall  assume 
during  the  period  of  reconstruction  will  have  to  do  with 
determining  the  early  or  late  dawning  of  the  better  day. 
It  is  the  part  of  wisdom  to  accept  the  inevitable.  Every 
generous  sentiment  and  every  motive  of  interest  lead  us 

to  hope  that : 

"  those  opposed  eyes 
Which  like  the  meteors  of  a  troubled  heaven, 
All  of  one  nature,  of  one  substance  bred. 
Did  lately  meet  in  th'  intestine  shock — 
Shall  now  in  mutual,  well-beseeming  ranks 
March  all  one  way,  and  be  no  more  opposed." 

My  countrymen,  it  is  with  a  properly  subdued  feeling 
that  we  this  day  unite  our  thanksgivings  that  the  prophe- 
cies to  which  for  four  years  we  have  listened  in  Europe, 
of  the  certain  downfall  of  our  nation,  have  failed  of  ful- 
fillment. We  certainly  have  come  out  of  the  conflict 
somewhat  wiser  than  we  went  in.  We  before  knew  that 
sentiment  is  not  the  inspiring  principle  of  the  policy  of 
States ;  that  modern  government  is  quite  a  practical 
affair,  and  that  there  is  very  little  place  in  cabinets  for 
the  play  of  sympathy ;  but  it  was  a  disappointing  experi- 
ence when  we  learned  that  men  professing  a  deep  sym- 
pathy for   the    cause    of   human    liberty  bestowed    their 


BIRTHDAY   OF   WASHINGTON.  1 77 

moral  support  upon  a  cause  committed,  before  God  and 
the  world,  to  perpetuate  the  system  of  human  bondage. 

We  now  know  all  the  conditions  upon  which  we  hold 
our  national  life. 

"  The  gods  help  those  who  help  themselves." 

For  the  withholding  that  sympathy,  which  we  thought 
it  not  unreasonable  to  expect,  one  reason  was  often 
assigned,  and  that,  too,  by  powerful  classes  of  men,  which 
I'  would  for  a  moment  consider.  It  was  this  :  That  we 
were  already  too  powerful,  and  that  it  was  for  the  interest 
and  safety  of  other  governments  that  we  should  be 
broken  up  into  several  independent  and  rival  powers. 
This  we  heard  expressed  most  frequently  and  emphati- 
cally by  the  subjects  of  a  power  which,  to  use  the  words 
of  our  great  American  orator,  "  has  dotted  the  surface  of 
the  whole  earth  w^ith  its  possessions  and  military  posts, 
whose  morning  drum-beat,  following  the  sun,  keeps  com- 
pany with  the  hours,  and  daily  circles  the  earth  with  the 
continuous  and  unbroken  strain  of  its  martial  airs." 

What,  we  would  ask,  is  there  in  the  past  history  of  our 
government,  or  in  the  character  of  our  people,  to  lead  our 
most  unfriendly  critic  to  fear  we  shall  forget  our  duty  as 
a  Christian  power  and  assume  an  aggressive  attitude 
toward  the  world?  Until  i86i  we  have  never  kept  on 
foot  more  than  the  nucleus  of  an  army,  nor  founded  a  con- 
siderable navy.  All  our  territorial  acquisitions  have  been 
by  just  purchase,  or  by  treaties  of  cession  at  the  close  of 
honorable  war.  Our  conquests  have  been  the  legitimate 
conquests  of  commerce  and  civilization. 

The  national  hospitality  has  been  extended  to  the  peo- 
ple of  every  land  and  of  every  tribe.  They  have  been 
invited  to  the  freest  competition  with  our  own  citizens  in 
the  struggle  for  well-being,  for  social  and  political  consid- 
eration.    The  hungry  of  Europe  have  come  to  our  gran- 


178  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

aries  and  been  fed.     Their  landless  have  <j^one  by  millions 
to  our  prairies  and  are  now  lords  of  the  soil   they  till. 

With  no  narrow  policy  of  non-intercourse,  we  have 
poured  our  wealth  into  the  laps  of  the  manufacturers  of 
every  article  of  utility,  of  grace  and  luxury  under  the 
sun.  During  the  period  of  a  necessary  economy  while 
prosecuting  our  war,  Europe  realized  a  crisis  which  her 
poor,  let  me  say,  met  in  a  manner  that  reflects  the  highest 
honor  upon  human  nature.  With  the  close  of  the  war, 
trade  has  resumed  its  normal  relations  and,  if  you  please, 
its  normal  extravagance,  and  the  looms  of  Lancashire  and 
Lyons  and  the  forges  of  Sheffield  are  jocund  as  the  morn- 
ing, and  there  is  not  an  artisan  in  Europe  who  does  not 
now  greet  wife  and  children  with  a  lighter  heart  as  he 
meets  them  on  his  return  from  his  daily  toil.  It  is  true  we 
have  realized  the  prophecy  of  an  old  poet,  that  the  star  of 
empire  "  should  westward  take  its  way,"  but  our  advance 
has  been  led  by  the  pioneer  and  not  by  the  soldier.  We 
have  taken  to  the  wilderness  the  arts  of  civilization  and 
not  the  enginery  of  war.  There  is  not  a  settlement  made 
by  our  people  between  the  Mississippi  and  the  Pacific, 
whether  of  agriculturists  in  Oregon  or  of  miners  in  Ari- 
zona and  California,  where  the  school-house  and  Christian 
church  have  not  preceded  the  comfortable  abodes  of  the 
settlers  themselves.  What  is  there  in  such  a  history  that 
should  lead  to  so  unfriendly  apprehensions  ?  The  grosser 
civilization  of  Rome,  fostered  by  the  spirit  of  a  military 
age  which  made  a  deity  of  force,  might  well  inspire  a 
Virgil  to  utter  his  semi-barbarian  rhapsody — "  Thy  work, 
O  Roman,  is  to  rule  the  nations,  to  impose  the  terms  of 
the  world's  peace,  to  show  mercy  to  the  vanquished,  and 
to  crush  the  proud." 

Nothing  is  more  foreign  to  our  traditions  and  our  prac- 
tice than  such  an  office.     Non-intervention  in  European 


BIRTHDAY   OF   WASHINGTON.  1 79 

questions  was  the  corner-stone  of  Washington's  foreign 
policy,  and  has  never  been  departed  from.  Within  our 
own  time  we  have  seen  the  national  enthusiasm  kindled 
into  flame  under  the  inspiration  of  an  eloquence  as  enchant- 
ing as  ever  interpreted  the  wail  of  an  expiring  nationality. 
The  mission  of  that  elocjuence  was  to  overthrow  the  settled 
policy  of  the  country,  and  to  persuade  the  government  to 
launch  out  upon  the  sea  of  republican  propagandism.  You 
remember  the  few  cool,  wise  words  with  which  our  govern- 
ment announced  its  purpose — adherence  to  our  traditional 
policy — and  how  perfectly  it  was  sustained  by  the  judg- 
ment of  the  country. 

We  would  suppose  that  our  critics  would  have  learned 
by  this  time  that,  while  the  people  of  the  United  States 
will  not  stifle  their  sensibilities  when  moved  by  any  of  the 
great  events  which  are  transpiring  in  any  part  of  the  world, 
the  mission  of  its  government  is  peace,  from  which  it  will 
never  be  diverted  except  to  the  defense  of  its  rights,  its 
honor,  or  its  life. 

War  sometimes  demoralizes  a  nation,  and,  if  successful, 
inspires  a  love  of  conquest  and  a  thirst  for  revenge.  We 
would  ask  if  war  has  generated  in  the  national  spirit  the 
lust  of  empire  and  dominion  ?  What  higher  proof  could 
be  offered  that  our  conservatism  cannot  degenerate  into 
popular  licentiousness  than  we  have  given,  from  the  mo- 
ment the  success  of  our  arms  had  secured  and  maintained 
the  object  of  our  one  great  love,  the  Union,  with  all  our 
hopes  of  individual  happiness  and  national  development 
bound  up  in  that  Union? 

The  world  saw  a  triumphant  army  of  more  than  one 
million  men,  long  led  by  tried  and  loved  commanders, 
almost  in  a  day  dissolve,  and,  without  tumult  or  disorder, 
melt  away  and  resume  their  place  in  the  ordinary  employ- 
ments of  peace.     It  has  seen  those  military  leaders,  when 


l8o  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

flushed  with  victory,  and  everywhere  hailed  as  saviours  of 
their  country,  yielding  as  readil)-  as  tlie  humblest  soldier  in 
the  ranks  to  the  authority  of  the  civil  power.  Obedience 
everywhere,  inordinate  ambition  nowhere.  More  than  this. 
It  has  seen  organized  assassination  holding  its  ascendant 
hour  in  the  nation's  capital,  and  a  chief  magistrate,  whom 
the  country  loved  as  a  friend  and  revered  as  a  father, 
stricken  down  to  death  by  the  too  successful  conspiracy. 
It  saw  the  venerable  chief  minister  of  State,  who  with 
peerless  hand  had  upheld  the  dignity  and  honor  of  his 
country  through  all  her  foreign  perils,  and  during  the 
most  difficult  and  delicate  period  of  our  international 
relations,  a  victim  of  the  same  conspiracy,  yet  saved  to 
his  country  by  a  Providence  hardly  less  than  miraculous. 
And  this,  too,  at  a  moment  of  national  triumph  and  rejoic- 
ing, and  with  every  attendant  circumstance  that  could 
aggravate  popular  passion.  Was  not  here  the  occasion 
for  revolution  and  anarchy,  and  for  a  wide,  implacable, 
unreasonable  and  unreasoning  revenge? 

There  was  a  shock,  but  it  was  purely  social,  not  polit- 
ical. The  ship  of  State,'  under  the  guidance  of  an  able 
hand  trained  in  the  practical  school  of  the  republic,  and 
brought  to  it  by  constitutional  provision,  moved  calmly  on, 
with  conscious  strength,  yet  not  in  pride  or  in  presumption. 
So  it  still  moves. 

Still  another  spectacle  has  been  afforded  to  the  world 
of  the  temper  of  the  nation.  After  a  four  years'  civil 
war  that  counts  its  dead  by  hundreds  of  thousands,  a 
generous  and  almost  universal  amnesty  has  been  extended 
to  political  offenders,  and  not  a  drop  of  blood  has  been 
shed  for  the  crime  of  treason,  while  States  which  shot 
madly  from  their  spheres  are  rapidly  resuming  their  normal 
relations  in  our  political  system. 


BIRTHDAY   OF   WASHINGTON.  l8l 

It  is  in  no  vainglorious  spirit  that  I  adopt  this  strain  of 
remark.  Circumstances  have  recently  placed  the  country 
we  love  prominently  before  the  bar  of  the  opinion  of  man- 
kind. We  cannot  be  wholly  insensible  to  that  opinion ; 
and  when  it  is  candid  opinion,  and  not  prejudice  or  pas- 
sion that  distrusts  us,  we  will  canvass,  and,  if  allowed, 
we  will  enlighten  it.  When  we  trace  the  history  of  our 
country  from  its  humble  beginning  to  its  present  moral 
and  material  development ;  when  we  think  of  it  as  the 
land  of  promise  to  the  poor  of  the  overcrowded  States  of 
Europe  who  ask  only  acres  and  the  right  to  labor,  and  the 
protection  of  equal  laws;  when  we  consider  its  physical 
conformation,  its  sky-piercing  mountains  and  its  noble 
rivers,  reversing  the  law  which  has  elsewhere  sometimes 
obtained,  interposing  to  make  enemies  of  States, 

"  who  had  else 
Like  kindred  drops  been  mingled  into  one," 

with  us  becoming  elements  of  commercial  unity  and 
political  fraternity,  we  can  but  feel  that  our  nation  has  a 
providential  mission,  and  that  a  mission  of  good  and 
beneficence  to  the  world. 

There  is  a  noble  civilization  in  Europe,  the  result  of 
centuries  of  development,  sometimes  by  the  arts  of  peace, 
and  sometimes  through  the  sterner  discipline  of  war. 

Each  great  power  has  its  distinctive  character,  which 
it  has  impressed  upon  its  literature,  its  laws,  and  its 
institutions. 

They  have  all  marched  to  their  opportunity.  Not  less 
faithful  to  our  trust,  we  accept  the  omens  of  our  present, 
and  enter  with  hope  upon  the  fuller  development  of  our 
American  civilization. 

Let  us  consider  for  a  moment  the  higher  advantages  we 
possess  for  that  development,  since  the  only  disturbing 


l82  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

force  which  has  so  far  appeared  to  menace  us  is  now  a 
thing  of  the  past.  For,  with  the  exception  of  the  slave 
question,  there  has  never  been  in  our  national  politics  any 
more  heat  or  bitterness  than  are  incident  to  every  State 
free  enough  to  admit  the  struggles  of  party. 

And  it  would  be  difficult  to  name  an  angry  controversy 
in  Church  or  State,  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century, 
whose  fires  have  not  been  kindled  and  their  fuel  supplied 
by  the  slave  question.  It  has  been  the  one  evil  genius  of 
the  country,  an  unbidden  guest  at  every  board,  pouring 
its  poison  into  every  cup  presented  to  the  fevered  lips  of 
the  nation. 

Henceforth,  our  institutions  are  to  be  homogeneous, 
and  neither  individual  character  nor  State  character  is 
to  be  educated  under  the  influence  of  the  baleful  star  of 
slavery. 

I  do  not  know,  nor  do  I  pretend  to  fathom,  the  future 
of  the  African  in  America.  I  only  know  that  my  govern- 
ment will  see  to  it  that  he  is  protected  in  his  life,  his 
liberty,  his  property  and  his  family,  without  which  his 
emancipation  is  but  a  mockery.  I  know  that  the  Christian 
charity  and  benevolence  of  my  countrymen,  acting  in  har- 
mony with  the  public  policy,  will  see  to  it  that  he  have  pro- 
vided the  means  of  secular  and  religious  education.  The 
negro  will  have  what  every  American  asks  for  and  has — a 
fair  chance  in  the  competitive  race  of  life.  Whether  he 
be  so  normally  inferior  as  those  who  distrust  his  adequacy 
to  his  new  responsibility,  insist ;  and,  being  so  inferior,  he 
shall,  in  obedience  to  a  law  that  has  more  than  once  vindi- 
cated itself,  give  way  to  the  superior  race,  and  in  the  course 
of  years  be  superseded  by  a  more  vital  force  than  his  own  ; 
or  whether,  as  every  proper  feeling  leads  us  to  hope,  he 
shall,  when  so  cultured  and  protected,  exhibit  that  indus- 
try, thrift  and  force  of  character  which  will  enable  him  to 


BIRTHDAY    OF   WASHINGTON,  1 83 

become  a  recognized  power,  and  to  rise  with  the  ever- 
advancing  tide  of  activities  and  necessities,  I  leave  to  the 
future  to  determine. 

Whichever  hypothesis  may  be  the  true,  the  emancipa- 
tion of  the  race  has  not  only  redeemed  us  from  our  great- 
est reproach,  but  it  has  lifted  labor,  where  the  system 
of  slavery  obtained,  from  degradation  to  dignity,  and  has 
made  it  a  regenerative  instead  of  a  depressing  force.  This 
single  fact  will  create  in  time  what  has  been  the  sad  want 
of  the  South,  a  want  lamented  by  all  her  early  statesmen, 
and  without  which  she  could  never  obtain  her  truest 
development. 

No  State  can  in  this  age  of  the  world  be  a  great  moral, 
or  long  a  great  material  force,  in  which  the  people  are 
not  a  power.  You  may  have  an  aristocracy  whose  vices 
are  almost  concealed  by  the  splendor  that  dazzles,  and 
whose  virtues  are  magnified  tenfold  by  the  Patrician 
courtliness  that  surrounds  them,  but  if  there  be  no  people, 
no  great  middle  class  constantly  to  supply  what  decays 
above  and  to  furnish  new  fertilization  from  below,  your 
fabric  will,  sooner  or  later,  dissolve  by  its  own  inherent 
principle  of  decay.  The  era  of  the  people  began  in  the 
South  with  the  emancipation  of  the  slave,  and  with  the 
consequent  restoration  to  labor  of  its  dignity.  Let  the 
South  not  fear  this  new  element.  There  is  health  in  it 
and  not  disease,  there  is  strength  and  not  debility.  The 
emigration  which  it  invites  will  come  to  cultivate  her 
fields,  to  develop  her  mines,  and  to  give  to  every  pursuit 
the  guidance  of  intelligent  industry.  It  wall  bring  with 
it  education,  religious  and  charitable  institutions,  a  whole- 
some competition  for  all  the  prizes  of  life,  yet  ever  sub- 
ordinate to  the  laws  of  legitimate  authority.  The  South 
will  realize  in  time  that  "  the  heart  of  the  citizen  is  the 
perennial  spring  of  energy  to  the  State."     Her  five  hun- 


1 84  ADDRESSES   AND   MISCELLANIES. 

drcd  thousand  slaves  capable  of  bearing  arms,  who  she 
supposed  had  created  a  new  king,  before  which  European 
cabinets  should  bow  and  people  pay  homage,  became 
the  element  of  her  greatest  weakness  in  the  hour  of  trial, 
and  their  cotton  king  was  discrowned  in  a  day,  and  its 
jewelled  robes  trampled  under  the  feet  of  the  noble  rep- 
resentatives of  European  labor.  The  slave  had  no 
interest  in  the  State,  but  a  positive  interest  in  the  over- 
throw of  the  system  that  made  him  a  bondman,  and  he 
could  not  be  trusted. 

Surely  the  experience  of  the  South  will  lead  her  to 
accept  the  new  relations  of  labor  and  the  new  competi- 
tions of  skill,  of  talent  and  enterprise,  and  the  necessary 
accompanying  results  to  all  her  economies. 

We  have  attempted  to  build  our  civilization  upon  the 
idea  expressed  by  the  Divine  founder  of  our  religion : 
"  One  is  your  Father,  and  all  ye  are  brethren,"  an  idea 
wholly  unrecognized  by  the  civilization  of  the  pagan 
world.  Rome  was  a  mighty  force,  but,  for  the  most  part, 
coarse  and  material.  A  glimpse  of  the  idea  of  the  brother- 
hood of  the  race  caught  the  vision  of  one  of  her  poets, 
who  sang  that,  being  a  man,  all  that  was  allied  to 
humanity  was  kindred  with  himself,  but  the  vision  was 
never  realized  in  Roman  institutions.  With  all  the  taste 
and  culture  of  Greece,  and  all  her  humanistic  worship, 
she  never  compassed  this  idea,  and  her  philosophy 
vainly  aspired  to  lead  man  to  the  highest  truths,  and  so 
to  place  human  laws  and  systems  in  harmony  with  the 
Divine.  We  can  maintain  our  institutions  only  by  ad- 
herence to  this  Christian  principle  and  by  fidelity  to  the 
duties  it  involves.  It  must  be  the  key-note  of  our  polit- 
ical system,  the  inspiration  of  all  our  institutions.  We 
are  now  passing  an  ordeal  not  new,  but  which  every  com- 
mercial State  of  antiquity  and  of  the  middle  ages,  failed 


f 

BIRTHDAY   OF   WASHINGTON.  1 85 

to  abide.     The  shores  of  time  are  lined  with  the  wrecks 
of  States  once  devoted  to  commercial  aggrandizement. 

Never  was  an  age  more  absorbed  in  material  pursuits 
than  the  present,  never  was  a  stronger  or  more  universal 
passion  for  the  wealth  and  luxury  that  tend  to  enervate 
as  well  as  adorn. 

What  are  we  to  do  with  it?  What  is  it  to  do  with  us? 
Is  history  to  repeat  herself?  Or  can  we,  folding  about 
us  our  robes  of  complacency,  and  looking  the  stern 
sphinx  in  the  face,  read  a  promise  that  corruption  shall 
not  touch  us,  and  we  may  safely  build  our  Babels  to  the 
stars!  With  all  its  material  features,  the  present,  I  be- 
lieve, affords  the  grandest  and  noblest  spectacle  of  human 
activities  e\'er  witnessed  in  any  period  of  the  world.  But 
it  needs  the  inspiration  of  the  principle  I  have  stated  as 
the  underlying  one  of  our  political  system,  or  history 
will  repeat  upon  us  herself. 

Commerce- — and  I  use  the  term  in  its  broadest  sense — 
wedded  to  humanity,  is  the  greatest  regenerating  force 
created  and  wielded  by  man.  When  the  State  binds 
the  heart  of  the  citizen  to  itself  through  his  interest  and 
his  affections,  and  when  its  voluntary  institutions  uecog- 
nize  the  claim  of  humanity,  when  commerce  through 
those  institutions  reaches  its  strong  hand  down  to  the 
weak  to  support  them,  to  the  fallen  to  raise  them,  to  the 
struggling  to  aid  them,  to  the  diseased  to  heal  them,  to 
the  wronged  to  vindicate  them  ;  when  society,  so  inspired, 
represents,  not  a  mighty  Juggernaut  crushing  wdiatever 
crosses  its  pathway,  pitiless  and  remorseless,  but  a  benef- 
icent spirit  of  charity  and  good  will,  of  fraternal  sym- 
pathy and  love,  it  preserves  its  purity  by  its  activities, 
strengthens  its  power  by  its  ever  renewed  and  renewing 
forces,  and  must  abide,  for  it  is  built  upon  a  rock — the 
justice  and  charity  of  God. 
13 


t 

1 86  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

On  this  commemorative  da)-,  wliich  recalls  so  vividly 
the  history  of  the  land  we  love,  its  early  strugi^les,  its 
immortal  heroes,  its  later  conflicts  and  its  new  career, 
we  cannot,  we  would  not,  forget  the  sacrifices  which  have 
secured  us  the  joy  of  this  occasion. 

There  is  no  human  sentiment  so  strong  as  love  of 
country.  It  has  made  the  heroic  ages  of  the  world. 
Patriotism  has  made  our  age  heroic.  Everlasting  honor 
to  the  brave  men  who,  answering  the  call  of  country, 
offered  their  lives  for  its  defense.  Our  marble  monu- 
ments to  the  memory  of  the  fallen  will  crumble  to  dust 
under  the  touch  of  time,  but  the  monuments  erected  in 
the  grateful  hearts  of  their  countrymen,  shall  be  eternal. 

Let  us  never  forget  the  debt  we  owe  the  living  who 
have  survived  the  perils  of  battle,  and  let  us  ever  remem- 
ber that  the  soldier's  widow  and  orphan  are  the  trust  of 
the  nation. 

Countrymen,  I  know  whither  your  thought  is  now  lead- 
ing you.  My  heart  is  beating  with  yours  in  sympathy, 
as  you  recall  to  memory  the  last  martyr  to  the  sacred 
cause  of  freedom. 

There  is  a  classic  legend  of  a  father,  whose  absorbing 
love  of  his  sons  prompted  his  prayer  at  evening  that  the 
gods  would  bestow  their  choicest  gift  upon  the  idols  of 
his  heart.  In  the  morning,  for  such  is  the  legend,  he 
found  the  answer  to  his  prayer.  His  sons  were  locked  in 
the  embrace  of  death.     This  was  Heaven's  choicest  gift. 

The  gentle,  the  great-souled  Lincoln,  entered  upon  his 
apotheosis  at  a  period  and  in  a  manner  which  seemed 
to  his  countrymen  who  loved  him  an  unnatural  and 
cruel  Providence.  Let  us  believe  that  his  death,  viewed 
from  a  higher  range  of  thought,  was  the  choicest  gift 
Heaven  could  bestow  upon  the  nation's  second  father. 
It  was  fitting  that  he  should  add  another  name  to  the 


BIRTHDAY   OV   WASHINGTON.  1 87 

very,  ver)-  few,  who  have  been  permitted  to  redeem  hu- 
manit}-,  and  to  sanctify  it  by  the  martyr's  sacrifice. 

Ah'eady  he  has  taken  his  place  in  the  hearts  of  man- 
kind, by  the  side  of  him  whose  natal  day  we  commemo- 
rate. Ages  hence,  the  generous  and  the  true  will  read 
his  story  with  tears  of  loving  sympathy,  and  go  forth 
with  braver  hearts  to  battle  for  the  right.  From  the 
upper  sky  his  spirit  waves  us  on.  Noble  martyr!  We 
accept  thy  guidance,  and  enter  with  hope  and  trust  upon 
the  regenerated  era  of  the  republic. 


1 88  ADDRESSES   AND   MISCELLANIES. 


THE    CHINESE    EMBASSY. 

Response  to  the  following  Sentiment,  at  a  Banquet  in  the  City 
OF  New  York  given  to  Hon.  Anson  Burlingame,  Minister  from 
China,  and  his  Associates,  June  23,  1868. 


An  Intelligent  Diplomacy  7'ecognizwg  the  Universal  Brother- 
hood of  Men,  and  Equal  Justice  to  all  Nations. 

Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  : 

I  thank  you  for  the  honor  of  a  call  to  respond  to  a  sen- 
timent which  this  occasion  so  naturally  suggests. 

Ours  is  an  age  of  progress.  And  of  all  the  progress 
which  modern  time  records,  involving  the  advancement  of 
liberal  ideas  and  more  just  international  relations,  I  recog- 
nize nothing  so  potential,  so  full  of  hope  and  cheer,  as 
that  diplomacy  which,  if  our  government  did  not  originate, 
it  certainly  has  commended  to  the  world  by  the  most  illus- 
trious examples  and  the  most  brilliant  success.  I  trust  the 
time  is  fast  approaching  when  the  whole  Machiavellian 
school  of  maxims  relating  to  international  intercourse  will 
be  superseded  by  the  principles  of  equal  justice  to  all  men 
and  to  all  States.  For  centuries  the  diplomacy  of  Europe 
was  a  system  of  strategy  and  violence ;  and  international 
law  was  practically  the  will  of  the  strongest — that  will  the 
inspiration  of  commercial  cupidity  and  the  lust  of  terri- 
torial aggrandizement. 

During  the  progress  of  our  civil  war,  I  read  in  the 
London  Times,  an  article  discussing  the  "Trent  Affair," 


THE   CHINESE   EMBASSY.  1 89 

these  significant  words :  "  It  is  true  we  have  in  past  times, 
as  a  nation,  done  many  wrong  things,  but  we  were  always 
able  to  fight  them  through." 

The  policy  thus  boldly  acknowledged  has  been  the 
world's  direst  curse.  It  has  deluged  Europe  and  Asia 
with  blood  ;  it  has  again  and  again  annihilated  weak  and 
independent  States,  and  erected  in  the  center  of  more 
than  one  colossal  empire,  a  government  of  force,  regard- 
less of  every  sentiment,  regardless  of  every  principle 
except  its  own  absorbing,  crushing,  devilish  ambition. 
Thanks  be  to  God,  there  is  another  school  of  international 
ethics!  And  I  think  it  a  just  matter  of  congratulation 
that  our  government  has  given  to  the  world  some  of  the 
best  practical  expositions  of  that  better  doctrine. 

The  stream  will  rise  no  higher  than  the  fountain.  If  it 
take  its  rise  from  the  low  level  of  human  passions,  we  may 
expect  wrong  and  violence.  If  it  take  its  rise  from  the 
fountain  of  Eternal  Justice,  we  know  that  it  will  bear  on 
its  bosom  that  central  truth  of  religion,  the  universal 
Fatherhood  of  God,  and  that  vivifying  principle  of  all  just 
politics,  the  universal  brotherhood  of  men.  It  will  lead 
to  that  law  to  which  Cicero  paid  homage,  which  is  not  one 
thing  at  Rome,  another  at  Athens,  one  thing  at  New 
York,  another  at  Pekin,  but  at  all  times,  and  among  all 
nations,  the  same,  immutable  and  eternal. 

When  I  consider  the  more  recent  diplomatic  action  of 
our  own  government  upon  matters  involving  the  internal 
security  of  a  power  with  which  we  are  now,  happily,  at 
peace,  and  with  which  I  devoutly  hope  and  pray,  we  may 
never  have  occasion  to  war — a  power  which  we  believe 
has  given  us  grievous  cause  of  just  complaint — when  I  see 
that  our  government  has  covered  the  head  and  whole  body 
of  that  power  with  coals  of  fire  from  the  furnace  of  char- 


190  ADDRESSES   AND   MISCELLANIES. 

ity  and  good  will,  I  recognize  the  dawning  Millennium  of 
States. 

And  when  I  see  our  representative  to  a  people  that  con- 
stitutes a  third  of  the  human  race — a  nation  that  dates  its 
histor}'back  to  a  period  coev^al  with  the  earliest  nations — a 
nation  distinguished  for  a  ci\ilization  that  has  flowered  into 
great  domestic  and  public  virtues,  and  whose  ethics,  asso- 
ciated with  names  that  rank  among  the  greatest  and  noblest 
of  all  ages,  command  the  respect  of  mankind,  yet  a  civiliza- 
tion that  has- preserved  for  centuries  an  isolation  as  abso- 
lute as  it  is  anomalous ;  when  I  see  that  representative, 
not  at  the  head  of  armies  or  of  navies,  not  with  strategy 
or  menace,  but  by  the  power  of  intelligent  persuasion,  by 
the  presentation  of  those  principles  of  international  comity 
and  justice  which  reason  approves  and  religion  enforces, 
accomplishing  incalculable  practical  results  for  their  good 
and  the  good  of  the  western  nations ;  I  see  beyond  the 
dawn,  I  recognize,  high  advanced,  the  blazing  day  of  the 
International  Millennium. 

And,  my  friend,  your  distinguished  guest,  will  allow  me 
to  hail  him  as  the  priest  of  the  new  era,  who,  with  the 
golden  ring  of  peace,  has  wedded  the  time-hallowed  civil- 
ization of  the  East  to  the  fresher  and  more  elastic  civili- 
zation of  the  West.  He  has  levelled  the  walls  of  China 
by  one  touch  of  the  wand  of  national  fraternity ;  and 
China  is  here,  conquering  us  by  conquering  our  prejudices, 
enlarging  the  boundary  of  our  sympathies,  by  realizing  to 
us  anew  that  God  has  made  all  nations  of  one  blood,  and 
that  of  them  all,  He  is  the  beneficent  Father. 

Mr.  President  :  I  honor  my  country  for  a  thousand 
considerations  which  inspire  us  all  with  a  never-waning 
love.  But  I  am  never  so  impressed  by  her  moral  grandeur 
as  when,  in  negotiating  with  other  States  on  questions 


THE   CHINESE   EMBASSY.  I9I 

that  naturall}'  excite  popular  passion,  she  refuses  to  plant 
herself  upon  a  policy  inspired  by  revenge  :  I  honor  her 
most,  when,  firmly  demanding  justice,  I  see  her  bearing 
offerings  of  peace  in  her  hand,  while  in  her  heart  she  cher- 
ishes and  obeys  that  precept  of  the  skies,  "  Do  unto  others 
as  you  would  that  others  should  do  unto  you."  There  is 
contagion  in  the  example  of  justice.  My  thought  is  sug- 
gestive of  the  true  mission  of  American  democracy. 


192  ADDRESSES   AND   MISCELLANIES. 


THE    BIBLE    SOCIETY. 

Address  delivered  before  the  Buffalo  and  Erie  County  Bible 
Society,  June  19,  1870. 


In  my  few  words  I  shall  leave  the  strictly  spiritual 
side  of  the  Bible  question  to  the  professed  teachers  of 
Christianity,  and  shall  confine  myself  to  a  purely  practical 
view.  The  Bible  Society  proposes  to  distribute  among 
those  destitute  of  the  Scriptures,  what  Christendom 
accepts  as  the  revealed  will  of  God  to  man.  This  book 
furnishes  us  a  summary  of  human  duties  in  all  personal 
and  citizen  relations.  More  and  higher:  it  assures  man 
of  his  own  immortality — it  teaches  him  there  is  a  God, 
that  he  is  a  subject  of  His  moral  government ;  a  govern- 
ment that  bestows  rewards  for  obedience,  and  inflicts 
punishments  for  disobedience.  More  comprehensive  than 
all  civil  codes,  it  furnishes  in  a  few  general  principles  an 
infallible  guide  to  right  conduct  in  every  private  and 
public  relation. 

The  first  secular  object  is  the  security  of  private  rights, 
and  the  peace  and  order  of  society.  Property  is  a  con- 
servative force,  but  religion  is  a  greater,  for  it  tends  to  sub- 
ordinate human  cupidity  to  the  sense  of  moral  obligation. 
Our  age  has  pre-eminent  need  of  that  conservative  power 
— and  never  were  political  institutions  more  dependent 
upon  it  for  pure  and  beneficent  action  than  are  ours.  A 
nation  of  perfect  equality  of  all  its  citizens  before  the 
law — a  nation  which  in  its  youth  finds  half  of  earth  at  its 
feet,  and  fresh  springs  of  wealth  bursting  forth  every  day 


THE   BIBLE   SOCIETY.  I93 

and  on  every  side,  intensifying^  every  energy  of  its  people, 
it  finds  itself  tending  with  fearful  velocity  toward  material 
gratifications,  and  to  a  laxity  of  principle  in  its  social  and 
business  life.  I  am  not  a  grumbler  against  the  age.  I 
know  too  well  its  good,  its  benevolences  and  sympathies, 
its  alliances  with  ideas  and  institutions  that  seek  the 
elevation  of  the  degraded  and  neglected,  and  to  restore 
the  divine  image  where  it  has  been  marred  by  social  and 
political  wrongs  in  classes  and  in  races,  to  speak  its  ill 
without  ample  qualification.  But  the  very  freedom  we 
enjoy,  and  the  facilities  for  accumulation  and  the  greed 
they  create,  tend  toward  materialism  in  our  gratifications 
and  in  speculative  thought,  and  towards  license  in  indi- 
vidual life.  How  is  all  this  intellectual  and  physical  energy 
to  be  placed  under  the  restraints  of  the  only  force  that 
can  control  it — religion  ?  Roman  Catholicism  attempts 
the  solution  by  denying  the  right  of  private  judgment  in 
all  matters  of  religious  faith  and  practice.  It  resists  the 
tendency  of  the  age  toward  individualism  by  an  uncom- 
promising war  upon  its  spirit,  certain  to  be  followed  by  a 
reaction  that  must  immensely  weaken  the  Papal  authority. 
This  age  will  not  wear  chains  whether  imposed  by  Church 
or  State.  There  is,  too,  an  element  in  Protestantism  that 
favors  this  tendency  to  which  I  have  alluded.  For  Prot- 
estantism in  its  broad  sense,  a  sense  that  grows  broader 
and  broader  every  day,  is  the  exercise  of  the  right  of 
private  judgment,  and  the  freest  action  on  every  question 
affecting  religious  opinion  and  observance.  They  who 
suppose  it  to  be  a  mere  question  of  dogma  between  Rome 
and  Luther,  utterly  fail  to  comprehend  the  philosophy  of 
the  religious  revolt  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Protest- 
antism, in  the  practical  sense  which  this  age  has  adopted, 
is  the  right  of  challenge  of  all  old  interpretations  of  truth, 
and  of  all  old  forms  of  worship.     This  has  undoubtedly 


194  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

tended  to  weaken  that  clerical  influLiicc  which  in  our 
earlier  history  was  so  valuable  an  element  in  society. 
For  it  certainly  is  a  great  public  gain  when  a  body  of 
men,  learned,  upright,  seeking  not  their  own,  but  the  best 
good  of  Others,  have  pre-eminent  influence,  an  influence 
of  character,  on  moral  and  social  questions.  But  in  this 
age  of  individualism  and  of  an  iconoclastic  democracy, 
you  must  find  your  chief  conservative  force  in  the  moral 
sense  and  religious  character  of  the  citizen. 

As  other  moral  influences  grow  less,  that  of  religious 
education  must  grow  more  and  more.  Liberty  and 
religion  are  inseparable.  It  is  impossible  to  maintain 
democratic  institutions,  unsupported  by  a  moral  power  in 
society  which  flows  out  of  a  belief  in  God  and  the  soul's 
immortality — in  short,  unless  you  resist  the  licentious 
tendencies  of  the  age  by  the  religious  sentiment.  I  care 
not  what  may  be  the  material  acquisitions  of  the  country. 
You  may  cover  the  land  with  railroads  and  factories ; 
your  ships  may  girdle  the  globe ;  wealth  and  luxury  may 
flow  in  upon  you  in  flood-tides  from  field  and  mine,  but 
in  the  absence  of  the  religious  sentiment,  your  godless 
civilization  will  be  inspired  by  the  worst  elements  of 
character  and  the  worst  passions  of  men.  That  civilization 
gives  the  control  to  the  lower  part  of  man's  nature,  and 
centers  all  thought  on  to-day.  "  Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for 
to-morrow  we  die,"  is  the  fit  motto  of  all  Epicurean  life. 
A  few  may  resist  the  tendencies  of  such  a  philosophy, 
but  the  mass  of  men  will  gravitate  downward,  where 
their  sole  deities  will  be  an  absorbing  egotism  and  a 
degrading  sensuality.  Without  reverence  for  the  good ; 
without  a  sense  of  moral  obligation  based  upon  the  con- 
science, which  is  the  voice  of  God  in  the  soul,  what  hope 
is  there  of  the  preservation  of  anything  sacred  or  truly 
valuable?      Consider    for   a   moment    the    obligations   of 


THE   BIBLE   SOCIETY.  I95 

modern  society  to  Christianity.  Its  entire  organized 
benevolence  and  charity  are  its  immediate  outgrowths. 
The  education  of  Christendom  in  the  true  spirit  of  the 
founder  of  our  religion  has  been  slow — very,  very  slow  ; 
but  so  far  as  it  has  gone  it  has  produced  its  legitimate 
results.  We  are  indebted  to  it  for  every  law  ;  for  every 
institution  ;  for  every  public  sentiment  that  has  done  any- 
thing, \\'hether  much  or  little,  to  elevate  the  condition  of 
the  poor,  the  wretched  and  the  criminal.  The  doctrine  of 
the  fraternity  of  the  human  race,  and  of  the  universal 
fatherhood  of  God,  and  their  illustration  by  the  parable  of 
the  good  Samaritan,  has  founded  every  charitable  institu- 
tion in  Europe  or  America.  They  have  abolished  slavery ; 
they  have  opened  the  doors — never,  I  trust,  again  to  be 
closed — of  the  honest  debtors'  prison  ;  they  have  amelio- 
rated the  once-barbarous  criminal  code  ;  they  have  turned 
many  haunts  of  infamy  into  schools  of  secular  and  religious 
education  ;  they  have  cast  out  devils  from  millions  of  de- 
praved souls  ;  they  have  imparted  to  modern  society  its 
purest  grace  and  divinest  charm.  They  have  not  yet  done 
all  which  is  their  office  to  do,  but  what  is  accomplished  is 
their  trophy,  and  what  will  be  accomplished  will  be  the 
result  of  their  inspiration.  All  this,  and  much  more,  we 
owe  to  the  Christian  type  of  the  religious  sentiment. 
Shall  we  cherish  that  sentiment  and  maintain  our  Chris- 
tianity, with  its  lessons  of  love  to  man,  and  love  and 
homage  and  obedience  to  God  ?  For  we  must  be  Chris- 
tian, or,  religiously,  nothing.  We  shall  exchange  it  for 
no  other  system.  Interpretations  of  metaphysical  systems 
of  theology  will  change,  as  they  have  changed  ;  but  this 
is  of  little  consequence ;  it  is  the  spirit  we  must  preserve. 
Outward  types  of  religion  reflect  their  eras.  Christianity 
has  passed  through  the  phase  of  asceticism,  and  once 
found  the  outlet  of  its  enthusiasm  in  the  Crusades.     Our 


196  ADDRESSES   AND   MISCELLANIES. 

own  age  is  one  of  transition,  as  might  be  expected  from 
its  absolute  freedom  of  opinion  and  its  aggressive  intel- 
lectuality. But  let  none  take  alarm  while  the  spirit  of 
Christianity  is  maintained.  That  spirit  must  be  main- 
tained. And  how  ?  I  answer,  by  religious  education  of 
the  people.  This  is  largely  left  to  the  puli)it  ;  but  how 
far  short  is  the  pulpit,  as  now  organized,  of  the  public 
exigency  !  How  few  are  the  sittings  in  Protestant 
churches  compared  with  the  nominal  Protestant  popula- 
tion ;  and  how  prodigiously  at  fault  seems  our  system  of 
pulpit  instruction  !  Look  at  it.  We  build  churches  for 
$100,000  or  $200,000  to  accommodate  one  hundred  or 
perhaps  one  hundred  and  fifty  families.  We  open  them, 
practically,  exclusively  for  those  families,  three  hours  in 
the  week,  and  then  close  them  for  seven  days  when  we 
open  them  again  for  the  same  families,  during  the  same 
three  hours.  I  think  we  might  learn  something  from 
another  branch  of  the  Christian  communion,  in  this  con- 
nection, whose  church  doors  are  open  from  early  dawn  to 
night-fall,  not  only  on  Sunday,  but  almost  every  day  in 
the  week,  imparting  its  instruction  during  some  hours  of 
the  Sabbath  to  almost  its  entire  population.  Every 
religious  movement  is,  or  ought  to  be,  educational,  and 
the  Bible  Society  is  an  educator  of  the  non-church-going 
classes.  I  have  as  little  Bibliolatry  as  any  man,  and  do 
not  believe  an  unread  Bible  in  a  house  will  operate  as  a 
religious  charm.  Doubtless  much  of  the  society's  labor 
seems  lost,  but  this  is  nature's  law,  who  of  fifty  seeds 
"  often  brings  but  one  to  bear."  We  may  as  well  under- 
stand early,  that  the  religious  education  of  the  advancing 
generations  is  to  be  voluntary.  We  shall  find  the  State 
more  and  more  confining  its  system  of  education  to  the 
purely  secular.  It  will  tell  you  in  the  end,  that  the  State, 
in  its  political  character,  is  neither  Christian,  Pagan,  nor 


THE   BIBLE   SOCIETY.  1 97 

Jew ;  that  it  will  tolerate  all  religions  and  forms  of  wor- 
ship ;  but  that  systems  of  religion  it  will  leave  wholly  to 
the  domain  of  individual  and  ecclesiastical  action.  That 
it  will  form  no  alliance  with  sects  ;  that  it  will  wound  none 
of  the  consciences,  enlightened  or  unenlightened,  of  any 
portion  of  its  citizens,  by  forcing  upon  them  offensive 
religious  interpretations  or  dogmas  through  its  schools ; 
and  will  lay  no  tax  upon  the  general  wealth  to  educate 
one  class  in  a  form  or  s}-stem  of  faith  offensive  to  another. 
That  it  will  obey  the  logic  of  its  political  institutions, 
whether  it  disappoint  the  cathedral  or  the  chapel,  the 
plain  robe  of  Fox  or  the  mitre  of  St.  Peter.  While  the 
State  will  leave  to  voluntary  action  the  purely  religious 
education  of  the  people ;  and  while  sects,  who  hold  com- 
mon belief  in  God,  in  man's  responsibility  to  His  govern- 
ment, and  who  accept  Jesus  as  their  spiritual  teacher  and 
guide,  and  the  inspiration  of  all  that  is  pure  in  individual 
life  and  all  that  is  noble  and  sublime  in  our  civilization, 
will  advance,  in  all  legitimate  methods,  their  peculiar 
dogmas  and  forms,  there  is  a  sphere  in  which  all  Protest- 
ant sects  can  harmoniously  co-operate.  Your  society  is 
that  sphere.  It  may  not  be  perfect  in  all  its  methods, 
but  that  the  distribution  of  the  whole  or  parts  of  the 
sacred  Scriptures,  is  one  of  the  best  methods  of  popular 
religious  education,  I  entertain  no  doubt.  There  is  little 
absolute  perfection  in  human  institutions,  and  if  our 
intense  Protestantism  has  incited  a  license  in  matters  of 
religious  faith  which  we  could  wish  were  more  self-re- 
strained within  the  limits  of  hereditary  thought,  we  have 
to  congratulate  our  era  upon  a  broader  toleration,  and 
charity  and  kindliness  among  Protestant  Christians  of 
every  name,  rendering  easy  and  delightful,  co-operation 
for  the  advancement  of  morality  and  religion.  The  age 
has  learned  that  the  spirit  is  higher  than  the  church  ceil- 
ings, and  broader  than  the  church  walls ;  that  it  penetrates 


198  ADDRESSES   AND   MISCELLANIES. 

beyond  the  stars,  cind  carries  the  universe  in  a  corner  of  its 
bosom.  The  Procrustean  bed  of  ecclesiasticism  in  Prot- 
estant Europe  and  America  has  lon^  been  broken.  Rome 
is  now  engaged  in  recasting  her  iron  standard  of  opinion, 
in  the  belief  that  it  can  stretch  upon,  and  fit  to  it,  the 
spiritual  and  intellectual  life  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
It  might  as  well  attempt  by  Ecumenical  decree  to  put 
out  the  light  of  the  sun. 

The  object  of  this  society  is  popular  education  in  the 
system  and  ethics  of  Christianity.  If  I  were  addressing 
the  parent  society  I  would  make  a  suggestion,  which  I 
will  take  the  liberty  to  hint  to  you. 

You  are  engaged  in  a  campaign  against  immorality  and 
irreligion.  The  Bible  is  your  campaign  document.  As 
your  only  document,  is  there  not  too  much  of  it  to  secure 
general  reading?  A  large  portion  of  the  Old  Testament 
is  historical  and  somewhat  repetitious — while  portions  of 
the  New  are  devoted  to  the  development  of  a  theological 
system  which  requires  the  study  and  maturity  of  ripe 
years  to  comprehend.  This  is  an  age  of  pamphlets.  If 
a  free  trader  w^ould  convert  a  man  to  the  doctrine  of  Adam 
Smith,  he  does  not  send  him  "  The  Wealth  of  Nations," 
for  he  knows  he  will  not  read  its  multitudinous  chapters, 
but  he  will  supply  him  with  a  pamphlet  in  which  is  con- 
densed the  system.  Such  are  now  the  tactics  of  every 
school  of  social  and  political  reform.  The  Society,  I  think, 
should  popularize  their  method,  and  supplement  the  Bible 
work  by  publishing  in  pamphlet  form  the  more  important 
portions  of  the  Scriptures.  To  illustrate:  The  Gospels 
of  Matthew  and  of  John  and  the  Book  of  Proverbs  could 
each  be  made  such  a  pamphlet.  The  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  the  most  perfect  summary  of  human  duties  ever 
given  to  the  world,  could  form  another.  The  parables  of 
our  Lord — and  particularly  that  of  the  prodigal  son  and  of 
the  good  Samaritan,  and  some  of  the  most  striking  inci- 


THE   BIBLE   SOCIETY.  I99 

dents  ill  the  history  of  Jesus — could  form  another.  How 
easy  it  would  be  to  make  several  such  pamphlets,  adapted 
to  every  age  and  condition,  which  would  be  sure  to  attract 
the  attention  of  the  most  indifferent. 

A  tract  composed  of  the  parable  of  the  prodigal  son, 
and  of  the  incident,  beautiful  and  touching  beyond  all 
poetic  dream,  which  has  of  itself  made  a  new  era  in  the 
history  of  fallen  woman,  that  narrated  in  the  first  verses 
of  the  eighth  chapter  of  the  Gospel  of  John,  with  the 
Master's  few  words  of  sympathy,  "  Come  unto  me  all  ye 
that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest," 
I  believe  would  be  as  a  life-boat  to  multitudes  of  the 
world's  wretched  and  lost — who  would  never  seek  or  find 
it  in  the  bulky  volume  of  the  Scriptures.  There  is  another 
field,  ever  white  for  your  harvest — the  youth  of  the  coun- 
try. The  sentiment  of  love  and  the  principle  of  duty, 
presented  in  this  method,  will  fall  on  young  hearts  like 
the  gentle  rain  from  heaven  upon  the  place  beneath. 
Strike,  I  say  to  you,  for  the  children.  There  you  have 
no  occasion  to  create  a  religious  sensibility,  or  to  put  an 
appreciative  soul  under  the  ribs  of  moral  death.  God 
has  not  left  his  work  so  wretchedly  unfinished  ;  it  is  we, 
who  have  outlived  the  simplicity  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,  and  have  marred  the  divine  image  by  forbidden 
contact,  who  are  so  unmoved  by  that  divinity  which 
breathes  in  every  word  and  act  of  the  Master.  Adapt 
your  work  to  the  modern  conditions  of  society,  and  if  the 
age  accepts  with  less  readiness  than  former  ages  inflexible 
metaphysical  systems,  the  interpretations  of  fallible  men, 
impress  upon  it  the  spirit  of  our  most  holy  religion,  love 
to  man  and  love  to  God,  remembering  His  words  at  the 
well  of  Samaria,  that  neither  at  Jerusalem  nor  at  Gerazim 
were  men  to  worship;  for  the  temple  was  nothing  and  the 
altar  was  nothing,  but  that  God  required  all  men,  and 
everywhere,  to  worship  Him  in  spirit  and  in  truth. 


200  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 


YALE     COLLEGE. 

Remarks  at  the   Reception   by   Buffalo   Graduates  ok  Yale   to 
President  Porter,  December  28,  1876. 


Men  of  Yale  and  Citizen  Friends  of  Yale  : 

This  occasion  is  as  delightful  to  us  as  it  is  unique. 
The  Buffalo  resident  graduates  have  heretofore  taken 
some  steps  toward  forming  an  organization  which  should 
have  occasional  social  reunions.  Unfortunately  that  good 
purpose  has  never  fruited  as  it  ought.  With  at  least  a 
half-hundred  resident  graduates  in  Buffalo,  every  one 
retaining,  I  am  sure,  a  deep  interest  in  the  prosperity  of 
Alma  Mater,  this  is,  I  believe,  the  first  occasion  of  their 
reunion. 

I  congratulate  you,  gentlemen,  and  I  especially  con- 
gratulate you  that  at  this  first  reunion  we  have  with  us 
as  our  guest,  the  college  friend,  teacher  and  guide  of 
many  of  us,  the  scholar  and  the  man  who  has  given 
added  lustre  and  increased  renown  to  an  institution  which 
for  more  than  a  century  has  been  a  principal  educator  of 
American  youth,  and  whose  line  of  illustrious  presidents 
is  a  part  of  the  glory  of  the  nation. 

President  Porter,  in  behalf  of  the  Buffalo  sons  of  Yale, 
and  in  behalf  of  your  Buffalo  citizen  friends  here,  I  bid 
you  welcome  to  our  city  and  our  homes.  If,  after  the 
European  form,  we  cannot  give  you  the  freedom  of  the 
city,  we  can  do  a  great  deal  better — assure  you  the 
possession  of  our  highest  respect  and  the  homage  of  our 
hearts. 


YALE   COLLEGE.  20I 

The  college  days  of  some  of  us  were  under  your 
administration ;  of  others,  under  the  administration  of 
that  accomplished  scholar,  that  profound  publicist  and 
patriot  whose  setting  sun  grows  more  and  more  re- 
splendent as  his  days  go  on,  ex-President  Woolsey. 

There  are  a  few  of  us  who  gratefully  remember  it  was 
our  privilege  to  sit  at  the  feet  of  Jeremiah  Day — clarwn 
ct  veil  crab  He  uonien. 

I  can  assure  you,  sir,  that  all  the  sons  of  Yale  now 
before  you,  from  the  oldest  to  the  youngest,  retain  their 
first  love,  and  are  desirous  to  learn  from  .you  that  our 
venerable  mother  is  in  health  and  strength,  and  is  pre- 
paring to  meet  the  just  demands  of  the  age  for  a  higher 
education,  for  an  education  that  reaches  up  and  reaches 
down,  and  compasses  the  whole  globe  of  liberal  learning. 
We  know  that  the  routine  systems  of  fifty  or  even 
twenty-five  years  ago,  do  not  meet  the  wants  of  our  time. 
We  rejoice  that  Yale  has  recognized  this  change  by  the 
creation  of  new  departments,  and  by  imparting  a  some- 
what more  eclectic  character  to  her  methods  of  education. 
We  know  better  than  to  look  to  her  for  rash  revolution. 
We  know  she  moves  cautiously  that  she  may  move 
wisely,  but  we  know  she  moves. 

Gentlemen,  it  is  hardly  possible  to  over-estimate  the 
influence  of  such  a  seat  of  learning  as  that  which  fills  our 
hearts  to-night  with  the  reminiscences  of  the  generous 
rivalries,  and  the  severe  studies  of  our  college  days.  It 
is  within  the  lifetime  of  our  honored  guest  that  Sydney 
Smith  asked,  to  illustrate  a  historic  truth :  "  Who  reads 
an  American  book?"  The  question  may  now  be  put  in 
its  negative  form.  "  Who  does  not  read  American 
books?"  There  is  no  department  of  science,  of  philos- 
ophy, or  metaphysics,  or  of  general  literature,  no  school 
of  theology,  political  economy  or  social  science,  which 
14 


202  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

does  not    reckon  amon<^    their  ablest  representatives  the 
scholars  trained   in  our  New   England   universities. 

"  Peace  hath  her  victories  no  less  renowned  than  War." 

And  the  great  triumphs  of  peace,  triumphs  which  have 
ushered  in  the  better  civilization  of  our  time  and  crystal- 
ized  its  best  institutions,  have  been  under  the  leadership, 
in  the  main,  of  the  trained  scholars  of  the  country.  I 
would  not  undervalue  the  services  rendered  in  all  these 
departments,  by  men  of  thought  and  self-culture  who 
have  made  themselves  leaders  without  the  aid  of  univer- 
sity training.  But  I  know  they  would  be  foremost  to 
recognize  the  general  truth  of  my  proposition.  In  all 
these  departments  we  rejoice  to  know  that  Yale  has  dis- 
charged the  obligations  imposed  upon  her  as  an  American 
educator. 

She  may  say,  not  with  the  dejected  tone  of  Virgil's 
hero  as  he  surveyed  the  symbols  of  the  ruins  of  Troy, 
but  with  just  maternal  pride,  Quae  regio  in  tcrris  nostri 
non  plena  laboris  ? 

But  I  will  not  longer  detain  you,  but  close  by  renewing 
the  words  of  welcome  to  our  distinguished  guest. 


PUBLIC   CHARITIES.  20- 


PUBLIC    CHARITIES. 

Address  delivered  before  the  Buffalo  Charity  Organization 
Society,  January  9,  1879. 


There  seems  to  be  no  form  of  social  organization 
exempt  from  popular  evils.  When  the  French  Academy- 
offered  its  prize  for  the  best  discussion  of  the  question, 
whether  the  civilized  or  the  savage  condition  of  man 
secured  the  most  happiness  to  the  human  race,  Rousseau 
defended  the  savage  state,  and  reasoned  himself  into  the 
belief  that  civilization  had  been  a  curse  rather  than  a 
blessing  to  mankind.  With  that  sentiment  we  of  course 
can  have  no  sympathy  ;  but  it  is  certainly  true  that  the 
commercial  and  industrial  methods  of  our  time  have 
attendant  evils  that  require  patience,  charity,  sacrifice 
and  co-operation  of  the  best  elements  of  society,  to  pre- 
vent them  from  becoming  destructive  of  the  very  civiliza- 
tion whose  shadows  they  are. 

We  would  naturally  suppose  that  in  these  United  States, 
where  the  average  population  to  the  square  mile  is  less 
than  in  any  country  on  the  globe  except  Russia,  with  an 
almost  boundless  West  for  the  surplus  overflow,  poverty 
and  consequent  dependence  on  the  public  for  charitable 
relief  would  be  almost  unknown.  But  it  is  a  fact  that 
pauperism  and  the  evils  associated  with  it  are  assuming 
frightful  proportions  among  us,  and  to  a  certain  extent 
are  the  outgrowths  of  our  industrial  methods.  I  will  not 
speak  here  of  intemperance,  a  fruitful  source  of  poverty 
and  crime,  but  will  refer  to  that  feature  which  has  massed 
nearly  two-fifths  of  our  population  in  cities. 


204  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

The  last  twenty-five  years  have  for  the  most  part  built 
our  cities,  and  that  enterprise  alone  would  ^i^ather  in  these 
centers  a  large  working  population. 

Besides  this,  most  of  our  manufacturing — the  great 
iron  establishments  and  other  leading  occupations  which 
employ  hand  labor — are  carried  on  in  the  cities,  to  which 
artizans  and  laborers  have  been  invited.  It  has  been  a 
passion  with  us  to  build  up  manufacturing  towns,  and  to 
concentrate  in  them  the  labor  of  the  country.  This  is 
very  well  so  long  as  the  world  can  absorb  the  results  of 
all  this  industry.  But  when,  as  during  the  last  five  years, 
the  world  becomes  glutted  with  the  products  of  human 
labor,  and  it  can  no  longer  absorb  them,  then  follow 
shrinkage  of  values,  loss  of  capital  and  wages,  the  closing, 
in  whole  or  in  part,  of  establishments,  and  the  throwing 
out  of  employ  a  large  percentage  of  the  wage-labor — a 
class  whose  pursuits  do  not  seem  to  favor  frugality  and 
careful  preparation  for  the  wet  days  of  the  future.  Ought 
we  to  be  surprised  that  temporary  relief  of  more  or  less 
of  these  cases  should  be  a  necessity?  Ought  we  to  be 
surprised  that  there  should  be  many  who  lack  the  strength 
of  character  to  resist  the  demoralizing  tendencies  of  forced 
idleness  and  poverty,  and  that,  too  often,  losing  hope  and 
self-respect,  many  should  be  found  to  swell  the  list  of 
chronic  paupers,  or  the  vagrant  army  of  tramps  ?  There 
is  another  reason  why  the  needy  entitled  to  help,  or  the 
shiftless  too  lazy  to  work,  prefer  to  be  fed  by  public 
bounty,  seek  the  cities.  There  wealth  is  concentrated ; 
there  are  many  charitable  organizations  ever  responsive 
to  the  calls  upon  public  and  private  benevolence.  There, 
too,  the  public  have  a  vast  official  relief  machine  where 
much  is  left  to  individual  discretion,  hampered  on  every 
side  by  personal  or  partizan  relations  which  will  try  the 


PUBLIC   CHARITIES.  205 

severest  virtue,  and  which  tend  to  make  it  the  victim  of 
favoritism,  imposition  and  fraud. 

Heretofore,  the  cities,  by  working  this  great  machine, 
and  by  the  habit  of  indiscriminate  private  giving  without 
any  co-operative  action  by  citizens,  without  any  scrutiny 
of  individual  cases,  without  any  general  system  which 
would  reveal  the  worthy  and  expose  the  unworthy  seeking 
aid,  our  cities  have  offered  premiums  for  beggary,  and  be- 
come hot-houses  of  pauperism,  unthrift,  and  every  form 
of  vice  which  is  their  legitimate  outgrowth. 

We  may  calculate  that  a  certain  amount  of  pauperism 
is  incident  under  the  best  possible  system  of  poor-laws 
and  relief  organizations,  to  our  town  life.  How  to  make 
it  least  onerous  to  society,  and  least  mischievous  in  its 
general  influence,  is  a  question  now  pressing  for  solution. 
The  first  thing  to  be  guarded  against  is  so  to  organize 
and  administer  relief  as  not  to  make  pauperism  easy, 
comfortable,  and  a  business  promising  better  to  the  idly- 
disposed  than  systematic  industry. 

Any  one  who  shall  take  the  trouble  to  examine  the 
statistics  of  poor  relief  in  this  city,  will  find  that  there  is 
a  class  of  chronic  cases  who  for  years  have  not  only  been 
provided  for  by  the  public,  through  their  poormaster,  but 
have  also  been  in  the  habit  of  systematic  private  begging, 
and  of  appeal  to  churches  and  other  independent  organ- 
izations, each  one  of  which  sources  of  relief  had  sup- 
posed that  it  alone  supplemented  the  applicant's  means 
of  subsistence. 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  this  practice  tends  directly  to 
make  a  regular  profession  of  mendicancy.  It  demoralizes 
the  relieved,  tends  to  lessen  self-respect,  educates  the 
children  of  the  family  in  the  same  habit  of  life,  and  so 
creates  in  our  midst  a  distinct  profession  of  paupers,  with 
neither  purpose  jior  desire  to  rise  above  its  dependence. 


2o6  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

They  soon  come  to  look  upon  the  public  and  these 
sources  of  charitable  support  as  c[uite  as  reliable  as 
systematic  industry.  They  are  "  dead  beats."  It  is  man- 
ifest that  this  class  of  paupers  can  be  checked  in  its 
abuse  of  the  public  sympathy  only  by  some  system  which 
shall  make  known  their  names,  their  residences,  the  per- 
sons and  organizations  which  aid  them,  and  which,  by  its 
revelation  of  their  actual  needs,  can  prevent  that  abuse, 
and  so  compel  them  to  be  self-supporting  to  the  extent 
of  their  power.     This,  society  has  a  right  to  recjuire. 

The  old  system  I  have  briefly  considered  works  unhap- 
pily in  another  respect.  When  the  public  organize  a 
great  system  of  charity  under  our  poor  laws  it  gives  relief 
to  parties  as  paupers  and  not  as  men  and  women.  There 
is  little  contact,  except  in  a  perfunctory  way,  with  the 
needy,  no  education  of  the  subjects  of  this  machine- 
charity  to  better  methods  of  living,  no  help  to  cultivate 
self-respect.  They  are  treated  as  needy  hangers-on  to 
the  skirts  of  society,  who  require  so  much  food  and  fuel 
and  other  necessaries,  from  whom  little  is  hoped  and  less 
expected.  So  the  relieved  come  in  contact  with  the 
pocket,  but  not  with  the  heart,  of  society,  and  this 
involves  a  loss  to  both.  Charity  should  be  an  educating 
process.  "  Go  and  see  how  the  wretched  feel,"  is  the 
advice  of  the  great  English  moralist,  who  has  also  formu- 
lated the  highest  social  truth  in  a  single  line  : 

"  One  touch  of   Nature  makes  the  whole  world  kin." 

That  "  touch  of  Nature  "  is  sympathy.  That  charity 
which  is  dissociated  from  personal  sympathy,  digs  a  chasm 
between  the  needy  and  well-to-do  classes,  and  tends  to 
breed  mutual  distrust  and  antagonism  rather  than  kind- 
ness and  respect.  There  is  nothing  in  the  condition  of 
honest  poverty  which  has  succumbed  to  misfortune  which 


PUBLIC   CHARITIES.  207 

slioukl  inalce  it  the  enemy  of  the  more  fortunate,  while 
there  is  nothing  in  the  largest  wealth  which  should  lead 
it  to  withhold  fraternal  sympathy  from  the  worthy  poor. 
That  "  touch  of  Nature  "  which  reveals  the  kinship  of 
humanity  would  create  mutual  relations  between  all 
classes  that  would  go  far  towards  bringing  in  a  social 
millennium.     This  principle  has  a  wide  application. 

We  must  all  be  agreed,  I  think,  that  the  most  impor- 
tant question  in  this  relation  is,  how  the  charity  of  the 
public  can  be  most  prudently,  most  humanely,  most  justly 
administered,  so  that  it  shall  be  least  onerous  to  the 
public  and  more  beneficent  and  helpful  to  the  relieved. 
Another  thing  we  must  be  agreed  upon  :  That  organized 
as  is  our  modern  society,  there  will  always  be  a  worthy 
class  who,  for  some  cause  or  other  for  which  they  are 
often  wholly  irresponsible,  are,  for  a  longer  or  shorter 
period,  entitled  to  relief.  If  there  be  any  subject  upon 
which  the  statesmanship  and  benevolence  of  our  own 
country  and  of  Europe  have  sadly  blundered,  for  the 
most  part  inaugurating  systems  which  have  been  breeders 
of  pauperism  and  vice,  it  is  this  we  are  considering. 

To-night  we  have  come  to  listen  to  the  report  of  a 
year's  working  among  us  of  a  system  which  had  its 
origin  in  London,  but  which  has  been  commended  to  our 
public,  illustrated,  developed,  and  systematized,  with 
efficient  co-operation  of  others,  by  a  gentleman  who  has 
given  his  thought,  his  heart,  his  time,  to  what  I  believe  is 
the  beginning  of  a  great  revolution  in  our  charitable 
methods. 

The  system  of  the  Charity  Organization  recognizes,  I 
believe,  every  principle  I  have  briefly  stated,  and  it  is 
complete  in  its  workings  only  when  these  principles  fully 
obtain.  Without  going  into  much  detail,  I  will  briefly 
state  what  I   understand  to  be  the  methods  of  its  work- 


2o8  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

ings.  It  starts  with  the  princi[)lc  that  all  needy  persons 
having  no  sources  of  relief,  should  be  cared  for  b\'  the 
general  public.  That  sects  and  nationalities  should  be 
utterly  ignored,  and  no  questions  asked  at  what  altar  the 
reci[)ient  worships,  or  what  God  he  calls  Master.  The 
recipient  of  help  is  to  be  cared  for  as  a  man  or  as  a 
woman,  and  not  as  a  Catholic,  Protestant,  Hebrew  or 
unbeliever.  The  relief  afforded  is  not  grudgingly  given, 
but  bestowed  in  discharge  of  a  duty  society  owes  to  suf- 
fering man. 

Another  principle  is  this,  and  not  the  least  important: 
Relief,  administered  as  a  help  in  an  exceptional  condition, 
is  to  help  tide  over  the  hard  spot  and  aid  the  relieved  to 
become  self-supporting.  This  involves  another  idea. 
That  no  help  shall  be  given  which  tends  to  weaken  the 
sense  of  personal  responsibility  on  the  part  of  the  recipi- 
ent. Pauperism  is  not  to  be  made  an  easy  profession, 
and  when  health  is  restored  in  the  case  of  the  sick,  and 
opportunity  of  work  is  found  in  the  case  of  the  able- 
bodied,  the  supply  is  to  be  cut  off  and  the  party  required 
to  be  again  self-supporting.  This  faithfully  carried  out 
strikes  at  the  root  of  systematic  beggary,  and  stimulates 
to  honest  exertion  and  self-help.  To  this  end,  and  hence 
to  an  intelligent  and  economical  administration  of  its 
affairs,  the  whole  machinery  of  the  association  is  con- 
ducted. I  do  not  know  how  I  can  so  well  express  its 
objects  as  by  reading  a  section  from  its  constitution. 

The  following  shall  be  the  objects  of  the  society: 
I.  To  bring  into  harmonious  co-operation  with  each  other 
and  with  the  overseer  of  the  poor,  the  various  churches,  chari- 
table agencies  and  individuals  in  the  city,  and  thus  effectually 
to  check  the  evils  of  the  overlapping  of  relief  caused  by  simul- 
taneous but  independent  action. 


PUBLIC   CHARITIES.  209 

2.  To  investigate  thoroughly  the  cases  of  all  applicants  for 
charitable  relief  which  are  referred  to  the  officers  for  inquiry 
and  report. 

3.  To  place  ^gratuitously  at  the  disposal  of  all  charitable 
agencies  and  private  persons  the  investigating  machinery  of 
the  committees  of  the  society,  and  to  send  to  persons,  having  a 
legitimate  interest  in  cases,  full  reports  of  the  result  of  the 
investigation  made. 

4.  To  obtain  from  the  proper  charities,  from  the  overseer  of 
the  poor,  and  from  charitable  individuals,  suitable  and  ade- 
quate relief  for  deserving  cases. 

5.  To  assist  from  its  own  funds,  and,  as  far  as  possible,  in 
the  form  of  loans,  all  suitable  cases  for  which  adequate  assist- 
ance cannot  be  obtained  from  other  sources. 

6.  To  repress  mendicity  by  the  above  means,  by  the  gratui- 
tous distribution  of  investigation  tickets,  and  by  the  prosecution 
of  impostors. 

7.  To  promote,  as  far  as  possible,  the  general  welfare  of  the 
poor,  by  means  of  social  and  sanitary  reforms,  and  by  the 
inculcation  of  habits  of  providence  and  self-dependence. 

It  has  a  central  bureau  and,  at  present,  four  distinct 
offices,  one  for  each  district,  into  which  the  city  is  divided, 
having  in  co-operation  with  it  nearly  all  the  churches  and 
benevolent  organizations  in  the  city.  It  has  on  its  books 
the  name  of  every  applicant  for  relief  within  the  respective 
districts.  No  relief  is  afforded  until  the  party  is  visited 
and  the  facts  of  the  case  reported  upon ;  after  investiga- 
tion of  which  facts  a  full  record  is  kept.  It  learns  the 
source  of  relief,  whether  from  poormaster,  from  church  or 
private  charity,  so  far  as  it  can  be  obtained.  It  is  easy 
to  see  that  "dead  beats,"  the  voluntary  and  dependent 
idle,  and  the  roving  mendicant,  must  soon  lose  their 
vocation  under  this  system. 

In  each  district  a  committee  of  nine  gentlemen,  twice 
each  week,  meet  to  hear  reports  of  the  various  agents 
and  visitors  and,  after  careful  examination,  act  upon  the 


210  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

case  of  cacli  ituli\'idual  ai)plicant.  There  is  no  publication 
of  names  of  the  relieved,  and  ever)'thing  is  conducted  with 
as  much  delicacy  as  is  possible  in  the  nature  of  the  case. 
Some  of  the  visitors  to  families  are  women,  and  their  office 
is  not  only  to  learn  the  immediate  wants  of  parties,  but 
to  give  counsel  to  the  mother  how  to  manage  her  domes- 
tic affairs,  and  to  extend  that  sympathy  and  comfort  to 
families  which  women  know  so  much  better  than  men 
how  to  bestow.  The  only  element  ignored, — w'hich  might 
at  first  seem  to  some  a  mistake, — is  the  religious  element. 
This  organization  is  purely  secular,  and  scrupulously 
avoids  every  appearance  of  proselyting.  For  religious 
teaching  it  remits  to  their  spiritual  advisers  every  appli- 
cant for  relief.  This  disarms  all  criticism,  puts  an  end  to 
sectarian  jealousies,  brings  into  hearty  co-operation  every 
religious  interest  among  us  for  the  single  end,  and  so 
makes  the  organization  a  unit  in  its  action.  It  finds  its 
sources  of  strength  in  every  school  of  thought  and  in 
every  form  of  faith. 

For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  our  city  is  its  charity 
administered  on  a  business  basis  which  prevents  abuse 
and  cuts  up  by  the  roots  the  profession  of  mendicancy, 
while  at  the  same  time  those  entitled  to  relief,  within 
limits  just  to  society  and  to  themselves,  receive  it.  The 
abuses  of  public  charity  which  have  already  been  detected 
and  stopped  by  this  society  would  astonish  you.  For 
those  abuses  the  parties  are  not  alone  in  fault.  Society 
has  invited  them  all  by  the  methods  of  its  public  and 
private  charities. 

What  are  the  results  ? 

It  has  been  in  partial  operation  one  year.  A  much 
more  complete  canvass  than  we  would  suppose  possible 
has  been  made  of  families  and  persons  receiving  assist- 
ance, and  most  satisfactory  results  have  followed. 


PUBLIC   CHARITIES.  211 

The  expenses  of  the  overseer  of  the  poor  from  October 
I,  1877,  to  October  i,  1878,  were  $98,867.47  against 
$157,287.56  for  the  year  from  October  i,  1876,  to  1877. 
This  subject  has  received  the  thoughtful  consideration  of 
Mayor  Scheu,  who  in  his  recent  message  says : 

In  addition  to  the  intelHgent  efforts  of  the  overseer  of  the 
poor,  other  causes  have  combined  to  diminish  the  number  of 
persons  dependent  on  the  pubhc  for  support.  Among  them 
was  the  mildness  of  last  winter.  The  principle  of  investigation 
as  a  prerequisite  to  relief  has  been  more  fully  and  practically 
developed  than  in  the  previous  year.  Through  it,  as  applied 
by  the  overseer,  the  police  and  the  agents  of  the  Charity 
Organization  Society,  a  great  saving  has  been  effected,  and 
door-to-door  begging  has  almost  disappeared. 

Not  a  few  benevolent  individuals  are  availing  themselves  of 
the  opportunity  afforded  by  the  Charity  Organization  Society, 
and  through  their  generosity  many  have  ceased  to  be  dependent 
on  the  public.  Five  hundred  and  forty-two  families  have  been 
relieved  since  the  tenth  of  last  January.  It  is  a  very  suggestive 
fact,  showing  the  importance  of  due  investigation,  that  since  the 
Society  extended  its  operations  it  has  found  that  nearly  one- 
third  of  the  applicants  for  relief  were  not  in  need  of  it. 

I  want  to  look  for  a  moment  at  one  happy  feature  and 
result  of  this  organization,  independent  of  its  immediate 
objects.  It  is  the  only  charity  organization  I  know  of 
which  has  brought  all  sects  and  creeds  into  hearty  co- 
operation. Our  Roman  Catholic  friends,  whose  charitable 
institutions  are  a  prominent  feature  in  every  city  of  the 
Union — I  may  add,  of  Christendom — after  a  careful  exam- 
ination of  its  principles,  and  after  satisfying  themselves 
that  it  is  just  what  it  claims  to  be,  a  society  for  improving 
the  temporal  condition  of  the  poor,  are  giving  it  cordial 
co-operation  and  support.  I  hold  in  my  hand  the  Catholic 
Union  of  this  city,  of  date  December  nth,  where,  in  an 
article  on  ''  Christian  Charity,"  of  broad  and  just  views,  I 
find  these  words  of  appreciation  of  the  efforts  of  the  gen- 


212  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

tleman  primarily  instrumental  in  inau<^urating  the  society, 
and  the  society  itself: 

It  is  such  a  plan  of  relief  as  will  check  pauperism,  and  will 
improve  the  condition  of  the  destitute,  instead  of  humiliating 
and  demoralizing  them.  That  it  looks  to  imjjrove  their  moral 
and  social  condition  while  relieving  their  temporal  wants.  The 
Charity  Organization  can  accomplish  a  vast  amount  of  good. 
The  Society  of  St.  Vincent  de  Paul  has  long  jiraeticed  the 
methods  recommended  by  Rev.  Mr.  Gurteen.  The  branch  of 
it  established  in  this  parish  (Cathedral)  will  give  him  valuable 
assistance  in  carrying  out  his  plans. 

This  system  of  visitation  takes  the  Catholic  to  the 
home  of  the  Protestant,  the  Protestant  to  the  home  of 
the  Catholic,  both  to  the  home  of  the  Hebrew,  the 
Hebrew  to  the  homes  of  either,  and  so  brings  in  social 
and  human  contact  those  who  for  want  of  such  inter- 
mingled relations  sometimes  forget  that  society  is  a  unit 
in  its  secular  and  social  interest,  and  that  all  are  the 
children  of  a  common  Father. 

While  it  will  not  and  ought  not  to  lessen  the  devotion 
of  any  of  the  adherents  of  these  great  communions  to 
their  historic  faiths  and  forms  of  worship,  all  of  which 
seem  to  me  to  be  part  of  the  Divine  economy,  I  do  believe 
this  fellowship  will  teach  us  all  lessons  of  charity  and 
insure  a  higher  respect  for  our  common  humanity. 

AH  that  is  required  for  efficient  co-operation  in  this 
reform,  which  promises  so  much  in  so  many  directions,  is 
good  faith  in  our  action  and  a  generous  confidence. 

This  system,  if  a  success  here,  I  believe  will  in  time 
become  nationalized.  The  same  necessities  that  exist 
here,  the  same  abuses,  the  same  demoralization  from 
same  causes,  breeding  unthrift,  idleness  and  a  generation 
of  professed  mendicants,  exists  in  every  city  of  the  land. 
It  is  increasing  every  day,  until  tramp  life,  which  means  a 


PUBLIC   CHARITIES.  213 

wandering  from  place  to  place  to  exhaust  in  turn  the 
patience  of  every  public  visited,  has  become  a  national 
calamity.  Now  suppose  the  thorough  organization  the 
society  seeks  here  is  made  in  every  city,  each  haying  com- 
munication with  all  others,  do  we  not  see  that  wandering 
beggary  can  be  cut  up  by  the  roots  ?  All  that  is  needed 
is  such  a  national  system,  conducted  upon  business  prin- 
ciples by  persons  having  the  public  confidence,  to  keep 
under  this  enormous  evil,  ever  remembering  that  what  it 
seeks  is  not  to  prevent  aid  from  reaching  the  deserving, 
but  to  cut  off  the  fraudulent  hangers-on,  and  to  help  the 
poor  to  help  themselves.  Unless  this  matter  is  met  and 
adequately  managed  by  the  brain  and  the  heart  of  the 
country,  it  will  not  be  long  before  we  shall  find  beggary 
will  attain  proportions  that  will  defy  remedy. 

Before  closing,  I  want  to  say  a  word  about  the  means 
and  the  methods  of  relief  under  this  system.  The  larger 
amount  of  work  of  this  society  is  gratuitous,  but  the 
expense  of  keeping  up  its  offices,  its  agents,  and  printing, 
etc.,  are  from  five  to  six  thousand  dollars  a  year.  About 
that  sum,  which  ought  to  be,  but  is  not,  made  up  by  fees 
of  membership,  is  all  the  society  requires.  It  is  not  a 
dispenser  of  alms  ;  it  is  not  the  direct  almoner  of  any- 
body's charity :  on  the  contrary,  the  system  contemplates 
thorough  investigation,  and  an  intelligent  knowledge  to 
be  recorded  in  its  books  of  every  individual  case  asking 
relief.  Then  each  individual  case  reported  upon  favora- 
bly is  remitted  either  to  a  benevolent  person  who  is  will- 
ing to  give  the  relief,  or  to  one  of  our  churches,  or  guilds, 
or  charity  organizations,  to  do  for  the  case  what  is 
required. 

So  that  the  usual  agencies  of  relief  are  still  employed, 
and  the  necessity  for  keeping  up  their  needful  funds  still 
exists  in  all  its  force.     Hence  it  is  all-important,  and  with- 


2  14  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

out  this  the  system  must  be  a  faihire,  to  keep  good,  by 
private  donation,  the  funds  of  these  several  institutions. 

There  should  be  no  misapprehension  on  this  subject. 
There  is  no  magic  in  this  thing;  it  can't  go  alone.  Let 
no  man  cut  off  his  donation  where  he  has  been  in  the 
habit  of  giving.  What,  then,  is  the  use  of  this  society? 
It  makes  the  charity  of  the  town  an  intelligent,  instead  of 
a  blind,  charity.  By  its  system  of  investigation  it  exposes 
the  unworthy,  it  puts  an  end  to  street  and  door-to-door 
begging,  and  so  will  reduce  your  annual  expenses  within 
three  years,  I  believe,  one  hundred  thousand  dollars.  If 
to  keep  up  the  machinery  of  this  organization  cost  four 
thousand  dollars  per  annum,  a  saving  of  even  fifty  thou- 
sand dollars — and  already  it  shows  nearly  that — it  is  equal 
to  a  dividend  of  twelve  hundred  per  cent,  on  the  invest- 
ment. This  makes  no  reckoning  of  the  moral  gain  to  the 
public  by  the  restoration  to  habits  of  industry  of  a  large 
class,  and  the  rescue  of  multitudes  of  children  from  beg- 
gary and  vice — a  gain  which  transcends  all  mathematical 
calculations. 

The  city  of  London,  where  this  system  originated,  was 
almost  overborne  by  its  pauperism.  The  system  is  now 
in  successful  operation.  The  percentage  of  dependents 
on  public  relief  has  been  greatly  reduced.  System, 
administration  and  earnest  co-operative  action  by  its 
citizens  have  achieved  this  great  result.  If  this  experi- 
ment here  is  left  for  a  few  men  and  women  to  tug  and 
struggle  with  and  carry  alone,  it  will  miserably  fail,  and 
our  taxation  for  poor  relief,  which  in  city  and  county  has 
reached  about  two  hundred  thousand  dollars,  will  go  on 
in  the  ratio  of  our  indifference  until  the  millstone  will 
drag  us  all  into  the  sea  together.  Your  pauperism  will 
poison  the  fountains  of  your  political  life  ;  it  will  corrupt 
your  public  morals ;  it  will  breed  discontent,  disorder, 
shall  I  say,  revolution  ? 


CHARLES   KINGSLEY'S   LIFE   AND   LETTERS.  215 


CHARLES     KINGSLEY* 


Fruitful  as  is  our  time  in  biographies,  this  is  one  of 
the  richest  and  most  healthful  of  them  all.     Canon  Kings- 
le)-'s  life  was  one  of  enormous  activities  in  almost  every 
direction  that  could  interest  a  large-hearted  man,  and  in 
this  volume,  edited  by  his  wife,  we  find  reflected  as  in  a 
mirror  the  thought  and  sensibility  that  inspired  his  career. 
He   had,   to   start  with — what    an    Englishman  especially 
values — an  honored  ancestry,  which  he  traced  back  as  far 
as  the  twelfth   century.      His  father  was  an  English  gen- 
tleman,  and  his  mother  a  lady  of  education  and  ability. 
Kingsley  early  manifested  the  tastes  which  led  him  to  the 
clerical  profession.     His  first  sermon  was  written  when  he 
was  but  four  years  old,  and  a  very  good  sermon  it  was,  too. 
At  nineteen  he   entered   Magdalene  College,  Cambridge, 
where  he  carried  off  high  prizes  and  gave  promise  of  his 
future  eminence.      After  his  graduation  he  took  orders, 
and  settled  in  the  humble  curacy  of  Eversley.     And  here 
at  once  he  began  that  life  of  intense  self-denial  and  activ- 
ity which   characterizes  a  few — we   hope    many — of  the 
clergy  of  the    Establishment.      There   was   a   school  of 
young  clergymen  which  at  that  semi-revolutionary  period, 
both   in   Church  and   State,  found   in  the  late  Rev.  F.  D. 
Maurice  a  teacher  and  guide.     It  was  the  eve  of  a  new 
departure,  leaning  to  more  liberal  interpretations  of  the 
creed  and  articles  of  the  Church,  and  interesting  a  consid- 

*  Charles  Kingsley  :     His  Letters  and  Memories  of  His  Life.     Edited  by 
His  Wife.     This  notice  was  fust  published  iu  the  Buffalo  Daily  Courier. 


2l6  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

crable  bcxly  of  the  younger  clcr<^y  in  the  social  (lucstions 
which  agitated  England.  Young  Kingslcy,  with  his  liate 
of  oppression  in  all  its  forms,  and  his  sympathy  with  the 
laboring  classes,  at  once  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the 
reform  movements.  Hunger  and  poorly  requited  toil  had 
driven  the  masses  to  desperation,  and  the  Chartist  move- 
ment soon  included  a  large  portion  of  the  artisans  of  the 
country.  They  were  denounced  as  revolutionists.  Their 
natural  excesses  brought  the  severities  of  the  law  uj)on 
many  of  the  leaders,  and  all  England  seemed  divided  into 
hostile  camps.  Kingsley  had  no  sympathy  with  violence; 
he  knew  what  wrongs  had  stimulated  it,  and  he  addressed 
himself  to  the  double  task  of  calling  the  attention  of  the 
gentry  and  middle  classes  to  the  wants  and  the  wrongs  of 
labor,  and  of  educating  the  poor  to  seek  their  remedies 
in  methods  that  would  not  disturb  the  public  order.  For 
this  purpose  he  wrote  "  Alton  Locke,"  a  vivid  picture  of 
the  situation,  in  which,  wath  all  the  enthusiasm  of  his 
nature  and  the  glow  of  his  genius,  he  taught  a  lesson  of 
humanity  and  justice  to  the  rich.  It  had  a  powerful  influ- 
ence on  public  opinion  and  parliamentary  action.  He 
periled  everything,  as  advanced  reformers  ever  do,  in  so 
adopting  the  cause  of  the  weak  and  friendless.  He  was 
denounced  as  a  Chartist,  suspected  and  avoided  by  the 
aristocracy,  and  was  without  full  appreciation  by  those 
whose  cause  he  espoused.  There  was  hardly  a  social 
abuse  in  England  he  did  not  attack  by  sermon,  by  pam- 
phlet, through  the  journals,  and  in  every  form  of  expression 
known  to  English  agitators.  His  whole  life  was  a  warfare 
against  unjust  privilege  at  the  expense  of  the  masses,  and 
against  every  form  of  vice  and  every  element  of  degrada- 
tion. His  series  of  letters  over  the  signature  of  "  A  Work- 
ing Parson,"  fell  fast  and  hot  upon  the  public  mind — in 
advocacy  of  the  claims  of  the  neglected  classes.     He  was 


CHARLES   KINGSLEY'S   LIFE   AND    LETTERS.  21/ 

no  flatterer  of  the  people.  He  unmasked  their  faults  and 
vices  as  freely  as  those  of  the  governing  classes.  In  one 
of  these  series  he  says : 

Workmen  of  England !  You  think  the  charter  would  make 
you  free.  Would  to  God  it  would !  The  charter  is  not  bad 
if  the  men  who  use  it  are  not  bad.  But  will  the  charter  make 
you  free  .''  Will  it  free  you  from  slavery  to  ten-pound  bribes  ? 
Slavery  to  beer  and  gin  ?  Slavery  to  every  spouter  who  flatters 
your  self-conceit  and  stirs  up  bitterness  and  headlong  rage  in 
you  ?  That,  I  guess,  is  real  slavery.  *  *  *  *  There  will 
be  no  true  freedom  without  virtue,  no  true  science  without 
religion,  no  true  industry  without  the  fear  of  God,  and  love  to 
your  fellow-citizens. 

He  never  fell  below  the  Christian  dignity  of  that  utter- 
ance. His  "Yeast"  was  a  novel  of  the  same  general 
character  as  "Alton  Locke."  Indeed,  all  his  novels  had  a 
special  moral  or  social  purpose. 

An  interesting  part  of  this  book  is  his  correspondence 
with  one  Thomas  Cooper — a  man  of  ability- — -a  work- 
man and  an  atheist.  He  gave  lectures  on  atheism.  He 
sought,  he  says,  "  my  large-hearted  friend,  Charles  Kings- 
ley.  He  showed  the  fervent  sympathy  of  a  brother." 
Under  Kingsley's  judicious  instruction  Cooper  became  a 
religious  teacher.  Several  of  Kingsley's  letters  to  him 
form  an  attractive  feature  of  the  book.  This  incident 
reveals  him  to  be  intensely  human  as  he  was  good  and 
wise.  As  a  Christian  he  belonged  to  the  broad  school 
with  the  late  Rev.  F.  W.  Robertson  and  F.  D.  Maurice, 
and  the  yet  living  Dean  Stanley  and  Stoppford  Brooke. 
With  them— we  do  not  speak  invidiously — Christianity  is 
a  living  principle,  adapting  itself  to  the  world — a  gospel 
of  social  elevation  of  the  neglected  classes  as  well  as  of 
sound  doctrine  for  the  well-to-do  who  live  luxuriously  and 

believe  the  standards  as  by  law  required.      The  volume 
15 


2l8  ADDRKSSES   AND    MISCEI,I.ANIES. 

i^ives  a  clear  insight  into  the  outside  hibors  of  this  school 
and  of  their  religious  tendencies.  Ik^autiful  are  the  rela- 
tions of  the  young  clergy  of  that  school  to  their  much- 
misunderstood  but  great  leader,  the  late  Frederick  D. 
Maurice.  He  was  learned,  pious,  Christian,  who  had 
broken  away  from  some  of  the  severities  of  the  old  the- 
ology and  led  the  way  in  bringing  God  into  closer  and 
more  .sympathetic  relations  with  humanity,  and  in  placing 
the  Son  of  God  at  the  head  of  the  social  forces  which  must 
regenerate  it. 

Kingsley  was  also  the  most  eminent  of  the  "  muscular 
Christians."  He  believed  that  a  sound  soul  must  have  a 
sound  body.  He  fished,  hunted,  scaled  mountains,  made 
long  pilgrimages  on  foot,  botanizing  as  he  went,  loved  a 
hor.se,  could  row  and  box,  planted  himself  close  to  nature, 
and  drew  health  and  strength  by  the  contact.  This  gave 
him  vigor  and  kept  his  natural  buoyancy  of  spirit  ever 
active,  a  perennial  spring,  flowing  in  strong  currents 
of  joy  and  delight  for  his  family,  for  his  friends  and  for 
his  people.  He  recalls  the  late  Norman  McLeod,  the 
Scotch  clergyman,  whose  kindred  life  has  recently  been 
given  to  the  world  in  a  delightful  biography.  In  both 
we  find  the  same  humor,  jollity  and  fun — the  same  con- 
tempt of  cold  conventionalities  which  keep  the  manners 
grave  while  the  head  chills  and  the  heart  turns  to  ice. 
Kingsley's  temperament  was  ever  hopeful ;  there  is  not  a 
morbid  line  in  this  book,  which  is  full  of  his  letters  and 
journal.  He  soon  became  the  most  famous  man  in  Eng- 
land for  warm  and  active  sympathies,  and  for  that  energy 
which  bestirs  to  relieve.  His  works  went  wherever  the 
English  language  had  gone,  and  the  whole  English-speak- 
ing world  became  conscious  of  the  fact  that  here  was  an 
Englishman  who  had  a  heart  that  loved  and  a  head  that 
could    counsel.      Letters    flowed    in    upon   him  from  the 


CHARLES   KINGSLEY'S    LIFE   AND    LETTERS.  219 

remotest  Entrlish  colonies  thankiiiLr  him  for  lecidin<r  the 
writers  to  juster  thouj^hts  and  to  better  hfe,  or  askin<^ 
advice  in  ahnost  every  imaginable  circumstance  of  trouble. 
Infidels  and  scoffers,  doubters  and  excessive  believers,  all 
brought  him  their  experience  and  asked  his  guidance. 
Humanity  had  found  another  friend.  He  was  consulted 
by  a  lady  through  a  letter  about  joining  a  sisterhood. 
She  was  a  stranger.  His  reply  reveals  the  delicacy  of  his 
nature  and  the  exhaustive  method  of  his  treatment  of 
every  subject  submitted  to  him.  It  opens  as  follows : 
"Though  I  make  a  rule  of  never  answering  any  letter 
from  any  lady  whom  I  have  not  the  honor  of  knowing, 
yet  I  dare  not  refuse  you."  Then  follows  a  letter  of  three 
pages  of  the  book,  in  which  he  shows  this  woman  covet- 
ing the  selfish  pleasures  of  asceticism,  that  she  is  placed  in 
this  world  to  work  out  her  salvation,  not  by  selfish  care 
for  herself  in  a  cloister,  but  for  God's  children.  "  Believe 
me,  madam,  the  only  way  to  regenerate  the  world  is  to 
do  the  duty  which  lies  nearest  us,  and  not  to  hunt  after 
grand,  far-fetched  ones  for  ourselves.  Begin  with  small 
things,  madam  ;  you  cannot  enter  the  presence  of  another 
human  being  without  finding  there  more  to  do  than  you 
or  I  or  any  soul  will  ever  learn  to  do  perfectly  before  we 
die." 

His  letters  to  Tom  Hughes  ("Tom  Brown  of  Rugby") 
are  always  rollicking  with  fun. 

How  breezy  and  fresh  is  such  a  life!  We  read  it  after 
running  through  Harriet  Martineau's  biography,  the  most 
powerful  in  its  personality  of  our  day.  Wearied  with  her 
excessive  intellectuality,  and  under  the  spell  of  her  bald 
materialism — -a  materialism  which  converts  the  universe 
into  a  mill  of  blind  destinies,  with  no  God,  no  immortality, 
no  ideals  higher  than  our  own  egotism- — we  picked  up  this 
life  of  Kingsley,  and  the  contrast  was  as  of  a  tropical  garden 


220  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

after  a  journey  over  a  desert.  Harriet  Martineau  seemed 
to  blot  out  the  sun  and  the  stars.  There  was  no  liope  nor 
joy  nt)r  rest,  save  the  rest  of  annihilation,  be)'()nd  the 
grave.  Kingsley  brought  back  all  the  constellations  which 
have  guided  the  soul  of  man  in  all  ages.  The  contrasts 
on  that  side  of  their  lives  is  simply  infinite.  In  their  con- 
secration to  humanity  they  are  kindred.  We  ask,  \\ith 
wonder,  why  nature  robbed  that  great  woman — the  great- 
est of  her  time — of  that  element  which  we  ever  associate 
with  her  sex?  Woman  without  the  religious  faculty  seems 
woman  discrowned.  The  Kingsley  life  is  an  antidote  to 
the  Martineau  bane.  The  life  of  this  almost  unique  man 
will  do  much  to  give  cheer  and  hope  to  the  world's  toilers 
of  every  grade ;  it  will  open  the  hearts  of  multitudes  to 
the  teachings  of  Christianity  who  would  be  repelled  by  the 
severities  of  other  schools.  We  welcome  it  as  a  voice  of 
gladness  and  melody. 


HARRIET   MARTINEAU  S   AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  221 


HARRIET  MARTINEAU* 


Death  broke  the  seal,  at  last,  of  this  autobiographical 
legacy  to  the  world.  Harriet  Martineau,  twenty  years 
before  her  death,  justly  thought  that  her  life  was  so 
interwoven  with  the  intellectual  life  of  her  time,  that 
posterity  would  be  glad  to  learn  the  details  of  its 
activ^ities,  the  process  of  its  development,  and  the  final 
landing-place  in  philosophy  and  religion  of  the  great 
thinking  force  incarnated  in  her;  and  here  it  is,  after  its 
slumber  of  twenty  years,  with  much  of  her  later  history 
and  experience ;  so  that  in  these  two  volumes  we  have  a 
life-companionship,  with  this  marvellous  woman.  It  is  a 
biography  almost  unique  in  its  undisguised  revelation  of 
the  innermost  thoughts  and  the  most  secret  passages  of  a 
human  life.  The  confessions  of  Rousseau  hardly  admit 
us  into  closer  view  of  a  personality.  Her  heart  is  on  her 
sleeve  for  every  daw  to  peck  at,  and  her  mental  and 
psychological  character  is  stripped  of  all  disguise.  If  it 
be  true,  as  Carlyle  says,  that  "  the  true  delineation  of  the 
smallest  man  is  capable  of  interesting  the  greatest  man," 
then  this  delineation  by  an  artist  without  a  rival,  of  the 
greatest  woman  of  her  age — greatest  in  her  endowments, 
greatest  in  the  actual  results  of  her  life,  and  greatest  in 
her  influence  upon  the  social  and  political  policy  of  her 
age — has  an  interest  almost  transcendent.  We  have  seen 
her  compared    to  Madame    De  Stael.     Except   that    the 

*  Harriet  Martineau' s  Autobiography.  Edited  by  Maria  Weston  Chapman. 
This  notice  was  first  published  in  the  Bufialo  Commercial  Advertiser. 


222  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

brilliant  French  woman  had  genius  and  talent,  tlicre  is 
no  parallel  in  their  lives.  Madame  l)e  Stael  wrote  two 
romances,  which  are  still  read.  She  wrote  a  philosophic 
criticism  on  German  literature  which  has  yet  a  value. 
She  had  a  romantic  devotion  to  her  father,  which  had 
its  expression  in  a  superficial  history  of  the  French 
Revolution.  But  she  had  all  the  vanity  of  her  nation, 
unbounded  egotism,  and  was  never  happy  except  when 
surrounded  by  flatterers  and  enveloped  in  the  incense 
of  personal  idolatry.  She  consecrated  her  life  to  Madame 
De  Stael.  Between  such  a  life  and  that  of  Harriet  Mar- 
tineau  there  is  the  whole  heavens  of  distance.  Miss 
Martineau  was  a  philosopher,  a  statesman,  a  philan- 
thropist. The  family  fortune  was  lost,  and  its  numerous 
children  were  thrown  upon  their  own  resources.  Harriet 
betook  herself  to  literature  for  bread.  Her  early  strug- 
gles, her  indomitable  energy,  her  mastery  of  fortune,  her 
unconquerable  will,  even  in  the  beginnings  of  her  public 
career,  are  revealed  with  masterly  power  in  the  opening 
chapters  of  this  fascinating  work. 

Once  fairly  entered  upon  her  literary  career,  and  re- 
moved to  London  that  she  might  be  at  the  center  of 
activities,  her  life  is  simply  a  marvel.  It  was  a  time 
when  abuses  existed  everywhere.  The  policy  of  the 
government  toward  its  poor  and  laboring  classes  was 
unmitigated  injustice  and  cruelty.  It  was  the  time  of 
aristocratic  privilege.  Against  these  wrongs,  and  against 
a  false  system  of  political  economy,  aggravating  all  these 
evils,  she  arrayed  herself  promptly  and  fearlessly  on  the 
side  of  radical  reform. 

When  about  thirty  years  of  age  she  began  to  write  a 
series  of  political-economy  tales,  of  which  she  published 
thirty-four  in  two  and  a  half  years.  In  them  she  dis- 
cussed   every   question  of  political  economy   and    every 


HARRIET    MARTINEAU  S   AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  223 

social  abuse.  There  was  no  more  powerful  influence 
brought  to  bear  upon  the  public  than  her  discussions. 
Her  industry  and  its  results  are  simply  marvellous.  She 
was  a  daily  correspondent  of  a  London  journal,  writer  for 
the  leading  reviews,  and  there  was  a  steady  stream  of 
novels,  of  discussions  of  questions  of  national  interest,  of 
philosophic  disquisitions,  from  the  fertile  brain  of  this 
woman,  for  over  thirty  years  of  this  most  active  part  of 
her  laborious  life. 

When  thirty-four  years  old,  with  a  fame  no  English 
woman  had  before  attained,  she  visited  this  country. 
Her  reputation  preceded  her,  and  until  she  identified  her- 
self with  Garrison  in  his  anti-slavery  crusade,  her  visit 
was  a  constant  ovation.  Statesmen  of  all  schools  and 
sections  courted  her.  Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia 
and  Charleston  vied  with  each  other  in  paying  her 
homage.  But  the  age  w^as  too  thin-skinned  to  tolerate 
free  speech — -on  one  subject.  Slavery  was  still  a  god  of 
our  commercial  idolatry,  and  from  the  moment  she 
avowed  her  anti-slavery  sentiment  the  tide  turned.  Insult 
and  contempt  succeeded  adulation  and  welcome.  She  was 
warned  away  from  visiting  the  South,  and  some  of  the 
great  lords  of  the  North,  who  placed  chains  round  the 
neck  of  Garrison  and  led  him  to  prison,  turned  their 
backs  upon  her.  Returning  home  she  published  her  book 
on  America — one  of  the  great  sensations  of  the  time. 

The  vast  intellectual  labor  of  Miss  Martineau  could 
never  have  been  accomplished  but  for  the  fact  that  she 
wrote  with  an  ease  and  freedom  we  believe  never  sur- 
passed, if  equalled.  She  wrote  as  freely  as  she  talked  ; 
was  never  dependent  on  moods,  and  never  corrected  her 
manuscript.  Her  life  of  labor  was  a  perfect  system — her 
mind  a  splendid  machine  never  out  of  order. 


224  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

Of  course  such  a  character  was  a  social  celebrit)' — and 
yet  society  she  rather  avoided  than  courted.  At  one 
period  of  her  Hfe,  to  avoid  the  social  maelstrom  of  Lon- 
don, she  built  a  cottage  near  the  Wordsvvorths,  where, 
although  distrusted  at  first  because  of  her  materialistic 
sympathies,  she  soon  found  her  way  to  all  hearts,  and 
was  the  benefactress  of  the  vicinity  people.  She  gave  a 
course  of  twenty  popular  lectures  on  English  history,  and 
in  many  other  ways  sought  to  improve  the  minds  of  the 
common  people  around  her. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  features  of  these  volumes 
are  her  pictures  of  the  characters  in  London  literary 
society.  We  know  nothing  that  approaches  them  for 
strong  outlines  and  flesh-and-blood  coloring.  She  reveals 
her  hates,  for  such  she  has,  and  her  loves.  While  she 
flatters  herself  that  she  is  superior  to  prejudice,  she 
reveals  her  personal  piques. 

Brougham  she  hated  cordially,  and  for  Macaulay  had 
no  liking.  She  thought  him  shallow,  selfish — an  egotist. 
His  history  she  declares  a  romance,  below  the  dignity  of 
history.  On  the  other  hand,  for  Sydney  Smith  and  Hal- 
lam,  she  has  a  genuine  affection,  while  Carlyle  is  her  god. 
She  had  great  sorrows.  For  six  years  she  was  an  invalid, 
helpless  and  waiting  for  death.  Atkinson,  a  philos- 
opher, recommended  mesmerism.  She  tried  it  and  in 
six  months  was  cured.  Then  she  sounded  the  praise  of 
this  system,  and  the  whole  kingdom  rang  with  maledic- 
tions. Some  of  her  family  broke  off  intercourse  with 
her,  and  journals  and  reviews  kept  up  a  perpetual  war 
upon  a  woman  who  dared  escape  death  by  other  than 
the  orthodox  methods.  She  bravely  defied  it  all,  and 
maintained  her  ground  until  the  storm  had  exhausted 
itself. 


HARRIET   MARTINEAU  S   AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  225 

This  acquaintance  with  Atkinson  had  a  powerful  in- 
fluence upon  her  thought  on  philosophic  and  religious 
questions.  About  this  period  she  became  interested  in 
Comte's  Positive  Philosophy,  more  abused  than  under- 
stood in  England,  and  she  translated  the  six  volumes. 
Previous  to  this  she  abandoned  faith  in  Christianity,  but 
had  found  anchorage  in  no  system.  Atkinson,  with  his 
clear  intellect,  his  pure  nature,  his  high  aspiration  after 
the  good,  comes  in  at  this  period  to  carry  her  across  the 
chasm  and  land  her  upon  the  bleak  rock  of  Materialism. 
And  so  Harriet  Martineau  passed  the  last  years  of  her 
life  without  faith  in  God,  or  immortality — rejecting 
Christianity  and  other  forms  of  religious  faith  as  gross 
superstitions,  good  only  for  the  infancy  of  intelligence, 
which  must  utterly  fade  away  before  the  culture  of  a  near 
future.  And  here  we  find  the  most  .painful  phase  of  this 
great  life.  For  she  was  no  hypocrite  and  was  without 
affectations.  She  loved  her  race,  and  would  have  died 
a  thousand  deaths  to  serve  it.  How  could  she,  a  woman, 
be  so  discrowned  ?  Had  it  been  her  brother  James, 
whose  great  powers  have  been  thrown  on  the  other  side 
of  the  question,  whether  or  not  there  be  a  God,  and 
whose  sensibility  is  a  part  of  the  fragrance  of  the  religious 
literature  of  our  time,  we  could  understand  it.  But  that 
this  woman,  of  so  much  struggle  and  suffering  and  sorrow, 
should  reject  the  consolations  of  faith,  and  be  content 
with  consolations  of  philosophy,  that  she  could  so  under- 
value the  power  of  Christianity  as  a  social  force  and  an 
element  of  purity  in  individual  lives,  and  that  she  could 
so  remorselessly  attempt  to  overthrow  it,  we  confess  a 
marvel.  With  all  the  power  of  this  biography  and  all 
its  fascination,  this  single  element  settles  over  it  as  a 
cloud,  and  oppresses  the  reader.  That  she  is  sincere  as 
she  is  pure  and  good,  there  can  be  no  doubt.     We  can 


226  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

sinii)])'  conclude  that  her  powerful  intellectuality,  in  an  a<rc 
when  the  theologic  spirit  was  on  the  decline,  and  in  the 
absence  of  that  feminine  element  which  needs  the  sup- 
port of  traditional  faith,  has  landed  her,  whether  she 
would  or  no,  upon  the  desert  of  Unbelief. 

Miss  Martineau  in  her  devotion  to  absolute  truth,  has 
forgotten  that  there  is  some  dirty  linen  which  should  be 
washed  at  home.  She  had  an  unhappy  childhood,  and 
she  reveals  the  fact  that  she  had  a  mother  who  was 
unkind,  and  often  cruel.  She  made  the  early  years  of 
her  daughter  wretched  by  withholding  all  tenderness  and 
all  expressions  of  sympathy,  and  by  acts  of  positive 
injustice.  Yet  long  after  she  attained  woman's  estate 
her  mother's  word  was  law. 

She  should  have  thrown  a  mantle  over,  instead  of 
exposing  to  the  public,  these  faults.  The  same  may  be 
said  of  some  painful  passages  between  her  and  other 
members  of  her  family. 

She  became  at  length  almost  another  estate  in  the 
realm.  Cabinet  Ministers  consulted  her  upon  the  gravest 
questions  of  policy.  She  interposed  to  settle  disputes 
between  leaders  which  were  embarrassing  the  reform 
movements  of  the  time.  She  brought  about  a  reconcil- 
iation between  Sir  Robert  Peel,  when  Prime  Minister,  and 
Cobden.  She  was  full  of  diplomatic  skill  and  social 
address.  We  cannot  be  surprised  that  without  vanity, 
she  felt  herself  a  power,  and  became  dogmatic  and  dic- 
tatorial. No  man  or  woman  ever  lived  who  guarded 
more  jealously  a  personal  self-respect.  The  noble  family 
of  Lansdowne  wished  an  introduction  to  her  at  a  Lon- 
don party,  at  which  her  mother  was  present ;  but  as  they 
did  not  ask  that  her  mother  be  presented  to  them,  she 
rejected  every  overture  for  further  acquaintance.  She 
refused  an  introduction  to  the  poet  Tom  Moore,  because 


HARRIET   MARTINEAU  S   AUTOBIOGRArilY.  227 

he  published  a  poem  of  raillery  in  the  Times.  It 
wounded  her  and  she  never  for<rave  it.  Different  admin- 
istrations urged  a  government  pension  upon  her,  which 
she  refused.  This  great,  proud,  toilsome,  self-contained 
character,  wrought  her  work  until  she  attained  the  age  of 
seventy-four  years,  and,  measured  either  by  the  powers 
developed  in  her  life,  or  by  its  results  upon  the  thought 
and  policy  of  her  time,  she  appears  a  peerless  woman. 
Indeed  we  almost  forget  she  was  a  woman,  and  think  of 
her  as  a  human  force  thrown  upon  our  century  when  great 
revolutions  were  demanding  great  leaders.  We  speak 
of  the  age  of  Elizabeth  to  indicate  the  Renaissance  of 
English  letters.  A  century  hence,  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century  may  be  named  the  era  of  Browning 
and   Martineau. 


228  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 


HARVEY    PUTNAM. 

A  Memorial  Paper,  read  before  the  Buffalo  Historical 
Society,  Fehruary  i3,  1868. 


Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen: 

I  esteem  a  personal  kindness,  the  expression  of  a  desire 
by  the  Club  that  I  would  prepare  a  sketch  of  my  father, 
who,  although  never  a  resident  of  Buffalo,  had,  for  nearly 
forty  years,  more  or  less  intimate  personal  and  business 
relations  with  the  town,  and  for  several  years  was  the 
immediate  representative  of  this  county,  in  the  State 
senate,  under  the  constitution  of  1821. 

As  one  of  the  early  settlers  of  this  region ;  as  one  who 
shared  in  the  struggles  and  sacrifices  of  that  iron  age, 
when  every  day's  bread  was  purchased  by  the  day's  toil ; 
as  one  who  aided  in  founding  the  institutions  of  Western 
New  York,  his  unpretending  career  may  have  some  inter- 
est for  your  society,  whose  pious  office  it  is  to  preserve 
the  memories  of  those  who  have  made  our  western  history. 
And  you  will  permit  me  to  say  that  this  is  to  me  one  of 
the  most  attractive  features  of  your  society.  Indeed, 
during  the  several  years  of  my  absence  abroad,  I  had 
more  than  one  occasion  to  be  grateful  that  you  were  per- 
forming Old  Mortality's  office. 

I  know  how  busy  is  the  present,  and  that  in  the  whirl, 
and  rush,  and  tumult,  and  rivalry  of  our  clashing  interests, 
there  is  little  leisure  for  such  offices.  But  do  we  not 
wrong  both  the  living  and  the  dead,  when  we  willingly 
let  die  the  memory  of  the  representative  men  of  the  best 


HARVEY   PUTNAM.  229 

results  of  our  local  history?  There  is  a  sense  in  which 
wc  can  and  ought  to  retain  them  among  us  as  social 
divinities.  The  sentiment  of  mankind  in  this  regard  is 
not  at  fault ;  it  is  of  the  fact  that  it  is  overslaughed  by 
the  remorseless  egotism  of  the  present,  that  we  may 
complain. 

The  county  of  Buckinghamshire,  England,  w^as  one  of 
the  centers  of  Puritanism  and  revolution  during  the  reign 
of  the  first  Charles.  It  will  be  remembered  as  the  home 
of  John  Hampden,  who,  wearied  of  the  struggle  with  the 
crown,  at  one  time  took  his  passage  and  embarked  with 
his  kinsman,  Cromwell,  for  America.  The  project  was 
detected  and  thwarted  by  the  government,  and,  in  the 
language  of  Macaulay,  "  they  remained,  and  with  them 
remained  the  evil  genius  of  the  House  of  Stuart."  Among 
those  who  were  at  that  period  more  successful  in  their 
purpose  of  emigration,  was  the  family  of  John  Putnam, 
of  the  same  county,  who  arrived  in  Salem,  Mass.,  in  1634. 
They  are  the  ancestors  of  all  I  have  ever  known  bearing 
the  name.  They  immediately  settled  in  Danvers,  where 
many  of  their  descendants  are  still  living. 

Harvey  Putnam,  the  son  of  Asa  Putnam,  and  of  the 
sixth  generation  from  John  Putnam,  was  born  in  Brattle- 
boro,  Vermont,  the  youngest  of  nine  children,  on  the  fifth 
day  of  January,  1793.  He  was  left  an  orphan  in  infancy. 
Soon  after  the  death  of  his  parents  he  removed  to  Wil- 
liamstown,  Mass.,  and  from  there,  while  yet  a  lad,  to 
Cobleskill,  in  this  State,  under  the  care  of  kindred.  At 
the  age  of  about  fifteen,  he  removed  to  Skaneateles, 
Onondaga  county,  where  he  was  apprenticed  to  an  elder 
brother  to  learn  the  saddle  and  harness-making  trade. 
After  spending  about  two  years  in  that  service,  he  entered 
the  law  office,  as  a  student,  of  the  late  Daniel  Kellogg. 
He  completed  his  professional  studies  with  the  late  Judge 


230  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

Jcwctt,  of  Skancatelcs.  He  was  very  poor,  and  main- 
tained himself  during  his  preparatory  studies  by  teacliin*^ 
durintr  the  winter  seasons.  At  this  time  he  had  some 
private  lessons  in  the  Latin  language,  and  attended  the 
village  academy  one  or  two  terms.  He  had  a  rare  taste 
for  horticulture.  Contrasting  it  with  my  own  shocking 
deficiency  in  that  respect,  I  once  asked  him  where  he 
acquired  his  skill.  He  replied  that  he  owed  it  to  his 
Latin,  for  he  earned  the  money  which  compensated  his 
teachers,  by  gardening  during  the  leisure  morning  and 
evening  hours  of  summer. 

His  early  history  was  that  of  nearly  all  the  men  of  his 
generation.  It  was  a  constant  struggle  with  poverty,  but 
with  poverty  that  was  not  ashamed  of  its  struggle,  and 
which,  like  adversity,  for  those  who  have  the  art  to  find 
it,  wears  a  precious  jewel  in  its  head. 

He  read  his  profession  as  long  as  Jacob  served  for 
Rachel,  before  he  was  permitted  to  wed  his  mistress. 
For  in  those  days  there  was  an  impression  which  had 
crept  into  the  laws  of  the  State,  that  he  who  would  min- 
ister at  the  altar  of  Justice,  as  a  priest,  should  devote  at 
least  seven  years  to  learning  her  mysteries  and  preparing 
himself  for  the  duties  of  the  sacred  office.  On  being 
admitted  as  attorney  of  the  Supreme  Court,  he  moved  to 
Manlius,  in  Onondaga  county,  about  18 16.  But  this  was  a 
pre-occupied  field,  and  he  soon  began  to  think  of  seeking 
a  home  in  the  then  Far  West,  on  the  Holland  Purchase. 
How  little  can  the  present  active  generation  appreciate  the 
character  of  the  pioneership  of  that  period!  The  Holland 
Purchase  presented  scarcely  a  single  one  of  the  attractions 
that  now  draw  the  myriads  of  our  own  and  of  foreign 
people,  to  our  virgin  domain  beyond  the  Mississippi  and 
to  the  borders  of  the  Pacific.     There  was  land  and  the 


HARVEY   PUTNAM.  23  I 

possibility  of  cultivation,  but  it  was  covered  with  the 
primeval  forests,  and  its  possession  disputed  by  savage 
beasts  and  savage  men.  When  the  clearings  were  made 
and  the  crops  raised,  there  was  no  market.  The  dreariest 
corduroy  roads,  through  swamps  and  inhospitable  regions, 
imposed  a  journey  of  weeks  before  they  could  reach  the 
Hudson  River.  The  young  professional  aspirant  could 
hope  for  nothing  for  his  hard  toil,  but  the  smallest  pecun- 
iary compensations,  without  any  dream  of  wealth,  hardly 
of  competence.  No  man  settles  nowadays  in  our  pres- 
ent West  without  anticipating,  not  in  years,  but  in 
months,  the  sound  of  the  steam-whistle  rushing  past  his 
dwelling,  and  the  growth  of  a  commercial  center  near,  if 
not  upon,  his  own  acres.  He  lays  one  hand  on  the  mane 
of  the  Atlantic,  and  he  counts  the  days  when  he  will 
grasp  that  of  the  Pacific  with  the  other.  By  aid  of  the 
telegraph  his  spirit  is  ubiquitous,  and  he  daily  challenges 
prices,  at  the  hour  of  'Change,  in  every  market  in  the 
civilized  world.  His  house  of  iron  or  of  wood,  is  often 
manufactured  in  Chicago  or  other  towns  east  of  Kansas, 
and  whirled  with  lightning  speed  across  the  vast  prairies, 
and  the  miracles  of  Aladdin's  lamp  are  achieved  almost 
in  a  day.  The  young  lawyer  goes  out  to  Montana,  or 
Colorado,  or  Alaska,  with  visions  of  governorships,  sena- 
torships,  judgeships,  and  every  other  ship  that  is  freighted 
with  ambitious  hopes  and  high  expectations.  If  he  ever 
finds  these  expectations  and  hopes  illusions,  which 

"  Lead  to  bewilder,  and  dazzle  to  blind," 

he  does  not  so  realize  them,  until  he  is  old  enough  to  woo 
Philosophy,  and  find  there  is  sweetness  in  Adversity's 
uses. 

To  work  to  live,  and  to  live  to  work,  with  no  thought 
of  any  deliverance  until  the  great  deliverer  came,  was  the 


-J- 


ADDRESSES  AND   MISCELLANIES. 


lot  and  expectation  of  most  of  the  early  settlers  of  West- 
ern New  York. 

Mr.  Putnam  was  married  on  the  fifth  of  August,  1817, 
to  Miss  Myra  Osborne,  at  Skaneateles,  and  the  same 
year,  accompanied  by  his  young  wife,  he  took  up  his 
residence  in  Attica,  a  part  of  old  Genesee  county,  and 
lying  eleven  miles  south  of  Batavia,  its  county  seat. 
Here  he  fairly  began,  with  few  books  and  vast  capacities 
of  labor,  his  professional  life.  For  twenty  years  it  was 
wholly  unvaried,  except  by  those  local  trusts  which  are 
liable  to  fall  to  a  good  lawyer  and  trusted  citizen.  In 
1836  he  invited  to  a  partnership  with  him  the  late  Judge 
Hoyt,  to  whose  memory  a  most  deserved  and  apprecia- 
tive tribute  was  paid  by  Judge  Skinner  before  this 
society.  That  partnership  continued  until  1847,  when 
Mr.  Hoyt  was  elected  to  the  office  of  Justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court.  The  most  perfect  mutual  confidence, 
friendship  and  respect  ever  existed  between  them. 

Not  many  years  after  Mr.  Putnam's  settlement  at 
Attica,  his  kinsman  and  friend,  the  Hon.  John  B.  Skinner, 
took  up  his  residence  at  Wyoming,  in  the  same  county, 
whom  he  probably  met  more  frequently  in  the  trial  of 
important  causes,  as  associate  or  opposing  counsel,  than 
any  other  member  of  the  profession.  The  old  bar  of 
Genesee  was  not  wnthout  its  honorable  distinction.  The 
late  Gen.  Ethan  B.  Allen  and  Daniel  H.  Chandler,  and 
the  still  living  Judge  Taggert,  P.  L.  Tracy  and  Heman  J, 
Redfield  will  be  remembered  among  its  leaders.  Judge 
Skinner  was  the  favorite  advocate,  and  as  such,  held 
unrivaled  supremacy,  until  he  sought  among  us  that  ease 
with  dignity,  of  which  lawyers  as  well  as  poets  sometimes 
sing,  but  rarely  realize. 

In  1839  ^^-  Putnam  was  elected  to  the  short  session 
of  the  Twenty-fifth  Congress,  to  fill  a  vacancy  occasioned 


HARVEY    PUTNAM.  -  233 

by  the  death  of  lion.  Wilham  Patterson.  This  was  a 
congress  of  great  interest  in  its  jjersonal  and  political 
character.  Millard  Fillmore,  Ogden  Hoffman,  Henry  A. 
Wise,  and  that  most  able  and  accomplished  representative 
of  South  Carolina,  whose  untimely  death  was  so  deeply 
mourned  by  the  nation,  Hugh  Swinton  Legare,  and 
other  men  of  national  fame,  were  among  its  members. 
If  we  had  not  made  and  lived  so  much  history,  and  so 
fast,  we  should  remember  it  as  the  congress  which  under- 
took to  arrest  the  advancing  tide  of  the  ocean  with  a 
broom,  and  to  stay  the  fiery  flood  of  Vesuvius  by  placing 
a  man's  hand  over  the  crater.  What  success  crowned  the 
experiment  of  Mr.  Atherton,  is  recorded  in  ample  and 
enduring  chronicles.*  In  reviewing  the  letters  received 
from  him  during  that  winter,  I  found  a  statement  which 
reveals  how  easy  it  is  to  exaggerate  the  dangers  of  a 
present  crisis.  The  whigs  had  carried  the  preceding 
autumn  elections,  and  the  tide  was  fast  rising  which  was 
to  overwhelm  Mr.  Van  Buren  and  to  bear  the  opposition 
into  power — for  thirty  days  !     He  says  in  his  letter: 

I  met  Mr.  Clay  this  morning  in  the  senate  chamber.  He 
expressed  great  joy  over  the  result  of  our  election.  He  looks 
upon  it  as  the  salvation  of  the  country. 

Such  was  Mr.  Clay's  opinion,  and  I  have  no  doubt  the 
great  body  of  democratic  voters  of  that  day  believed  that 
the  defeat  of  Van  Buren  in  the  election  of  1840  would 
seriously  imperil  the  government,  while  it  was  demon- 
strated by  eloquence  unsurpassed  in  the  history  of  parlia- 
ments, and  accepted  with  almost  religious  faith  by  the 
opposition,  that  nothing  but  the  success  of  the  whig 
nominee  could  save  the  country  from  financial  ruin  and 
political    despotism.      We    now    know    that    these    views 

*Refeis  to  the  "  gag  rule,"  suppressing  abolition  petitions. 
16 


234  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

were  all  illusive,  and  that  the  institutions  or  liberties  of 
the  countr)'  were  no  more  involved  in  that  contest  than 
is  the  safety  of  the  Eddystone  lii^ht-house  in  the  play  of 
the  sea  foam  at  its  base. 

In  1840  he  was  appointed  Surros^^ate  of  Genesee 
county,  which  office  he  held  until  the  division  of  the 
county,  when  he  was  appointed  Surrogate  of  Wyoming 
county,  and  held  the  office  until  1842. 

In  1842  Mr.  Putnam  was  elected  to  the  State  senate,  a 
representative  of  the  old  eighth  district  comprising  the 
western  counties  of  the  State.  The  senate  at  that  time 
constituted  the  court  of  final  appeal  in  cases  of  law  and 
equity.  He  was  distinguished  during  this  term  of  four 
years  for  his  devotion  to  the  practical  duties  of  legisla- 
tion, and  for  his  painstaking  labor  as  a  member  of  the 
Court  for  the  Correction  of  Errors.  His  most  elaborate 
speech  in  the  senate  was  made  in  defense  of  the  canal 
policy  of  the  then  late  whig  administration,  then  the 
subject  of  attack. 

In  1848  he  was  elected  from  his  district  to  congress, 
and  was  re-elected  in  1850,  serving  through  the  last  half 
of  Mr.  Polk's,  through  Gen.  Taylor's,  and  a  part  of  Mr. 
Fillmore's  administration  of  the  government.  He  was 
elected  as  a  whig,  and  acted  with  the  great  body  of  that 
party  in  Western  New  York  on  all  the  public  questions 
that  arose  during  the  period  of  his  public  service.  He 
was  in  sympathy  with  the  anti-slavery  sentiment  of  his 
district.  He  did  not  sustain  the  compromise  measures  of 
1 850-'$ I,  for  he  did  not  believe  as  I  then  did,  and  as  the 
Northern  friends  of  those  measures  believed,  that  the 
South  would  accept  them  as  a  final  settlement  of  the 
slavery  question.  He  believed  the  South  would  neglect 
no  opportunity  to  strengthen  its  peculiar  interest  aggres- 
sively, and  that  resistance  to  its  pretentions  had  better 


HARVEY    PUTNAM.  235 

begin.  There  never  has  occurred  and,  I  think,  never 
will  occur  again,  a  crisis  in  our  national  history  when 
good  men  will  be  more  likely  to  widely  differ  upon  the 
most  sincere  convictions,  in  relation  to  what  policy  is 
wise,  than  in  that  which  arose  in  i850-'5i.  History  has 
since  come  largely  to  the  aid  of  our  philosophy.  And 
still  the  shield  appears  dark  to  some,  while  to  others,  of 
vision  equally  conscientious,  it  appears  silvery. 

At  the  close  of  his  congressional  service  he  returned  to 
the  duties  and  labors  of  his  profession  with  unabated  zeal 
and  enthusiasm.  His  son-in-law,  John  B.  Skinner,  2d, 
was  associated  with  him  from  the  time  of  Mr.  Hoyt's 
elevation  to  the  bench.  During  the  last  twenty  years  of 
his  life  his  health  was  not  very  firm,  but  he  never  would 
surrender  to  the  attack  of  disease  until  forced  to  yield. 
In  the  summer  of  1855  he  visited  Wisconsin  to  look  after 
some  business  interests  of  his  own.  He  returned  after  a 
few  weeks'  absence,  complaining  of  some  new  symptoms 
of  disease  which  culminated  in  dysentery,  of  which  he 
died,  after  a  few  days'  severe  illness,  on  the  twentieth  of 
September,  1855,  in  the  sixty-third  year  of  his  age. 
With  some  notice  of  his  personal  and  professional  char- 
acter, I  shall  close  this  sketch. 

He  brought  great  industry  and  unwearied  devotion  to 
his  business.  I  have  no  doubt  that  for  the  first  twenty 
years  of  his  professional  life  he  was  at  hard  work  an 
average  of  sixteen  to  eighteen  hours  per  day.  He  was 
always  overwhelmed  with  business,  and  nothing  escaped 
his  most  careful  attention.  To  the  most  trifling  causes 
that  were  constantly  arising  in  a  country  practice  he  gave 
the  same  research  and  exhaustive  study  which  the  gravest 
questions  and  most  important  controversies  in  courts  of 
record  commanded.  His  briefs  were  formidable  antago- 
nists.    His  characteristic  industry  he  brought   to  all  his 


2^6  ADDRESSKS    AND    MISCKI.I.AXIKS. 

pul)lic  trusts.  To  be  nc\'cr  idle,  to  tlo  willi  tlie  hi^liest 
skill  he  possessed  whatever  was  [)Iaced  in  his  hand  to  do, 
was  with  him  both  a  jjrinciple  and  a  passion.  He  never 
shirked  any  duty  imposed.  He  was  a  patient  and  labori- 
ous committee  man,  and  belonged  to  the  practical  and 
working  class  of  legislators.  With  the  exception  of  two 
or  three  speeches  on  the  Mexican  war  and  the  questions 
growing  out  of  that  conflict,  he  took  little  part  in  the 
floor  discussions  of  congress.  The  efforts  he  did  make 
were  always  the  result  of  careful  preparation.  His 
strength  in  debate  lay  in  his  judgment,  in  the  perfect 
integrity  of  his  mind,  and  in  his  power  of  exhaustive 
investigation,  not  in  any  charm  of  fancy,  nor  in  philo- 
sophic generalizations,  nor  in  any  magnetic  force  of 
nerves. 

He  was  in  his  business  the  perfection  of  order  and 
system. 

He  was  a  sound  lawyer,  but  perhaps  too  much  inclined 
to  find  guidance  in  past  judicial  decisions,  rather  than  ven- 
ture upon  a  new  path  through  general  principles.  This 
did  not  arise  from  a  superficial  study  of  elementary  law, 
but  was  the  result  of  the  conservative  character  of  his 
mind.  Stare  decicis  was  a  ruling  maxim  with  him,  and 
he  had  little  sympathy  with  judicial  innovations,  especially 
in  those  cases  which  involved  no  principle  of  natural  justice, 
but  where  some  arbitrary  rule  had  been  established  to  give 
security  and  confidence  to  the  business  public.  A  differ- 
ent habit  is  very  favorable  to  law  book-making,  and  con- 
tributes to  those  "delightful  uncertainties"  which  have 
been  so  fruitful  a  theme  for  the  jibes  of  satirists  of  all 
times.  This  characteristic  of  his  professional  and  judicial 
life  is  easily  detected  in  his  published  opinions  in  the  Court 
for  the  Correction  of  Errors. 


HARVEY    PUTNAM.  237 

While  in  the  practice  of  his  profession  he  reahzed  that 
the  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire,  the  hope  of  compensation 
was  the  least  stimulant  to  his  exertions.  He  would  labor 
as  diligently  and  as  sacrificingly  for  a  poor  widow  who 
would  besiege  him  for  months  with  some  case  of  wrong 
she  had  suffered  at  the  hand  of  an  oppressor,  and  who 
could  reward  him  only  with  empty  thanks,  as  he  would 
for  a  millionaire.  If  there  was  any  difference  it  would  be 
in  favor  of  the  poor  and  humble,  for  they  enlisted  his 
humanity,  the  strongest  motor  of  his  nature. 

He  had  no  love  of  money,  for  its  own  sake,  and  learned 
little  of  the  art  of  accumulation.  He  earned  and  spent 
most  liberally  on  his  family,  and,  for  his  means,  which 
were  ever  moderate,  he  gave  almost  with  prodigality  to 
his  Church,  and  to  objects  of  general  charity  and  benevo- 
lence. His  integrity  was  after  the  severest  model  of  char- 
acter, that  is,  absolute.  For  I  do  not  believe  the  English 
cynic  when  he  says  that  every  man  has  his  price ;  that  is, 
there  is  no  man  who  will  not;  for  some  consideration  that 
may  be  offered  to  his  cupidity  or  ambition,  betray  the 
trusts  of  business,  and  violate  the  confidences  of  public 
relations  and  private  friendships.  I  am  sorry  for  him  who 
does  not  know  the  luxury  of  absolute  and  justifiable  con- 
fidence in  somebody.  There  is  truth  in  the  saying  of  a 
better  man  than  Walpole,  that  he  who  charges  the  whole 
world  with  corruption  convicts  but  one. 

His  intercourse  with  men  was  without  mental  reserve, 
ever  frank  and  undisguised.  The  elements  of  his  personal 
strength  in  the  public  confidence,  were  character  and 
adequacy.  To  these,  all  the  public  trusts  he  held  were 
spontaneous  tributes.  I  have  spoken  of  his  benevolence. 
While  he  was  surrogate  this  was  often  appealed  to.  I 
have  frequently  seen  him  surrender  a  large  part,  sometimes 
the  whole  of  his  official  fees,  the  immediate  response  to 


238  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

tlic  suL;y;csti<)n  tliat  the  estate  settled  before  him  was  i)0()r, 
aiul  tliat  there  were  children  dei)endeiit  uj)on  it.  He  could 
offer  no  resistance  to  a  plea  of  humanity. 

He  was  a  peace-maker.  I  have  often  known  liim  when 
applied  to  to  institute  litigation,  to  persuade  the  parties 
to  allow  him  to  act  as  arbitrator  of  their  dis[)utc.  This 
did  not  compensate  his  pocket,  but  it  did  his  heart.  He 
secured  justice  to  the  contestants,  and  preserved  good  will 
among  neighbors,  and  that  satisfied  him. 

He  was  a  warm  friend  and  had  strong  personal  attach- 
ments. His  benevolence  would  have  made  him  kindly  in 
his  intercourse  with  others ;  but,  apart  from  that,  he  was 
by  temperament  full  of  cheer.  He  had  a  buoyant  spirit, 
and  a  face  radiant  with  social  sunshine.  I  doubt  if  any 
man  ever  moved  in  the  same  general  sphere  so  long  and 
made  fewer  enemies.  It  is  not  to  be  inferred  from  this 
that  he  was  facile  in  his  opinions,  for  the  contrary  was 
true ;  but  he  was  not  of  the  militant  class  who  are  ever 
sending  forth  notes  of  defiance,  long  and  loud,  to  the 
opposing  camp. 

For  about  thirty  years  he  was  a  professor  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  and  a  member  and  officer  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church.  The  religious  element  was  in  him  a  deep,  rich 
vein,  running  through  all  his  moral  and  social  being. 
Without  cant  or  ostentation,  he  accepted  the  truths  of 
revelation  with  a  faith  that  scarce  knew  a  doubt,  and  they 
constituted  his  highest  inspirations,  and  were  the  source 
of  his  deepest  joys.  While  he  so  accepted  Christianity, 
he  had  no  sympathy  with  the  bitterness  that  often  at- 
tend theological  disputes.  Christianity  was  with  him, 
literally,  a  life.  It  budded  and  blossomed,  not  for  con- 
troversy, but  with  the  fruits  of  the  spirit — faith,  hope, 
charity. 


HARVEY    PUTNAM.  239 

111  person  he  was  of  medium  size,  and  very  light  com- 
plexion. He  had  a  quick,  clastic  step,  and  a  movement 
which  gave  one  the  idea  of  hurry.  Such,  in  brief,  was  his 
history  and  character. 

He  was  one  of  a  class  of  men  who  were  distinct  (nit- 
growths  of  the  early  part  of  the  century.  The  age  which 
formed  their  habits  of  thought,  their  aspirations  and  their 
characters,  had  not  that  unrest,  that  hungering  and  thirst- 
ing for  large  results  in  a  short  space,  which  impels  the 
present  generation  with  unparalleled  velocity.  Their 
material  results  were  small,  but  their  labor  was  persistent, 
patient  and  disciplinary.  Life  was  not  made  up  of  schemes, 
but  was  accepted  as  a  term  of  service  in  a  single  line  of 
pursuit,  without  great  expectations,  feverish  anxieties,  or 
bitter  disappointments.  Such  a  life  could  hardly  be  a 
failure.  A  man  then  entitled  to  confidence,  won  it  often 
before  he  was  aware,  and  the  fruits  of  that  confidence 
dropped  at  his  feet,  whether  he  would  or  no.  The  best, 
perhaps  the  only  lesson  of  the  history  of  the  subject  of 
this  sketch,  is  patience  in  bearing  the  burthen  of  life,  and 
fidelity  to  all  its  common  trusts.  And  these  trusts,  are 
they  far  to  seek  ? 

"  The  primal  duties  shine  aloft,  like  stars ; 
The  charities  that  heal,  and  soothe  and  bless, 
Lie  scattered  at  the  feet  of  man,  like  flowers  ; 
The  generous  inclination,  the  just  rule. 
Kind  wishes,  good  actions,  and  pure  thoughts." 


240  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 


JOHN    B.  S  K  I  N  N  E  R. 

A  Memorial  Paper,  read  before  the  Buffalo  Historical 
Society,  February   24,  1873. 


Lawyers  are  said  to  have  brief  histories.  So  many 
early  struggles,  so  many  contests  before  courts  and  juries 
over  questions  of  a  narrow  interest,  and  then  an  end. 
Unless  called  to  important  public  positions,  and  thus  his 
life  becomes  identified  with  large  public  interests,  it  is 
certainly  true  the  lawyer  of  the  highest  professional  repu- 
tation leaves  little  material  for  the  biographer.  The  life 
of  Judge  Skinner,  eminent  as  it  was  in  his  chosen  profes- 
sion, offers  no  exception  to  this  rule.  His  whole  career, 
with  the  exception  of  a  short  experience  in  the  State 
legislature,  while  he  was  yet  a  young  man,  was  of  unsur- 
passed constancy  to  his  profession.  This  devotion,  how- 
ever, was  not  at  the  expense  of  much  public  service, 
through  his  connection  with  religious,  educational  and 
charitable  institutions,  while  his  personal  character  for 
nearly  half  a  century  was  a  recognized  power  in  the 
State. 

John  B.  Skinner  was  born  in  Williamstown,  Massachu- 
setts, July  23,  1799.  His  family  represented  the  highest 
character  and  culture  of  New  England.  Colonel  Simonds, 
his  maternal  grandfather,  was  distinguished  for  his  patri- 
otic services  in  the  war  of  the  Revolution,  and  his  honor- 
able fame  is  one  of  the  cherished  local  traditions  of 
Berkshire.     His  paternal  grandfather  was  the  Reverend 


JOHN    B.    SKINNER.  24I 

Thomas  Skinner,  who  was  educated  at  Harvard  University, 
studied  for  the  ministry,  and  was  settled  for  life  over  the 
Congregational  Church  of  Middletown,  Connecticut.  His 
father.  Deacon  Benjamin  Skinner,  was  distinguished  in 
his  time  for  his  devotion  to  religious  and  educational 
interests.  He  was  one  of  the  early  friends  of  Williams 
College,  where  his  sons  were  educated.  His  son,  John  B., 
graduated  in  1818.  After  graduation  he  entered  the  law 
ofifice  of  Hon.  Daniel  Buell,  of  Troy,  N.  Y.,  where  he 
formed  a  life-long  friendship  with  his  fellow-student,  the 
late  Governor  Marcy.  He  completed  his  preparatory 
legal  studies  at  the  then  celebrated  law  school  of  Judges 
Gould  and  Reeves,  at  Litchfield,  Conn.  He  was  admitted 
to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State,  in  August,  1821. 

In  about  the  year  1821  he  sought  the  then  land  of 
promise  for  New  England  enterprise  and  adventure. 
Western  New  York.  Wyoming,  in  the  town  of  Middle- 
bury,  county  of  Genesee,  which  he  made  his  residence, 
was  but  a  hamlet,  with  little  promise,  we  should  say,  for  a 
brilliant  professional  career.  Yet,  although  large  induce- 
ments were  often  presented  him  to  remove  to  more  ambi- 
tious social  and  business  centers,  he  resisted  every  impor- 
tunity to  change  his  residence  until  his  retirement  from 
the  practice  of  his  profession.  His  success,  solid  and 
brilliant,  was  assured  from  the  first.  His  industry,  his 
fidelity  to  professional  trusts,  his  learning  and  his  marvel- 
ous power  before  juries,  gave  him  a  leadership  at  the 
circuits  which  he  never  lost.  The  jury  trial  was  the 
favorite  theatre  of  his  professional  contests,  and  it  was  as 
the  advocate  that  he  was  without  a  peer.  The  methods 
of  conducting  litigation  in  his  time  differed  from  the 
present.  Then  the  great  object  was  to  secure  a  verdict 
from  the  twelve  men.  On  their  decision  hung  the  issues 
of  life  and  death  and  fortune.     This  made  the  counsel  who 


242  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

could  carry  the  jur\',  whether  by  magic  or  storm,  an  indis- 
pensable  ally.  Appeals  were  comparatively  rare.  Now- 
adays when  the  jury  in  so  many  trials  is  but  an  incident, 
and  law,  as  has  been  said  with  much  humor  and  some 
wisdom,  is  the  power  of  decision  by  the  last  judge  that 
can  hear  the  case,  the  eloquent  advocate  holds  a  position 
less  relatively  important  in  the  trial  of  causes.  But  Judge 
Skinner  was  learned  as  a  lawyer,  as  well  as  eloquent  as  an 
advocate,  and  it  was  this  rare  combination  that  gave  him 
a  position  so  distinguished  before  the  courts. 

What  might  have  been  Judge  Skinner's  success  in  the 
highest  range  of  discussion,  we  can  only  imagine.  He 
never  had  the  opportunity  which  a  great  public  cause  and 
a  great  occasion  afford  to  the  orator.  But  when  we 
remember  the  integrity  of  his  mind,  his  keen  sense  of 
right  and  wrong,  his  intense  convictions,  and  that  sensi- 
bility and  fervor  which  charged  his  utterance  with  a  mag- 
netism that  was  electric,  we  cannot  doubt  he  would  have 
taken  high  rank  in  any  deliberative  body.  There  can  be 
no  question  as  to  the  rank  Judge  Skinner  held,  not  only 
•  in  point  of  professional  ability,  but  of  professional  char- 
acter. He  was  of  that  class  of  lawyers  who,  in  the  best 
days  of  all  civilized  States,  have  made  the  legal  profession 
the  ally  of  religion  and  virtue  in  advancing  the  social  and 
civic  interests  of  mankind.  His  profession  he  accepted  as 
a  sacred  trust.  That  trust  was  administered  with  a  con- 
scientiousness that  reflects  honor  upon  human  nature. 

Said  a  friend,  speaking  to  me  of  the  Judge — one  who 
knew  him  well  as  a  lawyer  and  as  a  man  :  "  His  true 
greatness  was  his  character;"  and  he  was  right.  That 
was  solid  granite.  It  stood  for  a  half  a  century  before 
the  public,  simple,  grand,  invulnerable.  It  was  a  felt 
power  in  the  jury  box,  in  public  assemblies,  in  the  Church, 
in  the  street,  in  social  and  domestic  life.     It  put  on  no 


JOHN    B.    SKINNER.  243 

airs,  was  heralded  by  no  trumpet.  It  stood  before  the 
world  a  human  fact,  accepted  and  trusted  of  all  men. 
His  opinions  were  sometimes  minority  opinions,  but  he 
was  always  majority.  The  man  was  never  defeated,  for 
no  voting  force  could  overthrow  his  moral  supremacy. 

In  the  year  1838  Mr.  Skinner  was  appointed,  by  his 
early  friend,  Governor  Marcy,  to  the  office  of  Judge  of 
the  Eighth  Circuit,  who,  at  that  time,  had  equity  jurisdic- 
tion as  vice-chancellor.  There  was  an  universal  desire 
on  the  part  of  the  bar  of  the  district  that  he  would 
accept  the  position,  but  he  declined  it.  President  Pierce 
appointed  him  United  States  District  Attorney  for  the 
Northern  District  of  New  York,  which  he  also  declined. 

In  1846  he  was  appointed  Judge  of  the  County  Court 
of  Wyoming  by  the  governor,  under  the  new  constitution, 
an  office  which  he  held  a  few  months  until  the  election. 
He  was  one  of  the  first  victims  of  the  elective  judiciary 
system.  He  continued  the  practice  of  his  profession  until 
about  i860,  when  he  removed  to  Buffalo. 

The  political  side  of  the  life  of  Judge  Skinner  is  not 
without  interest.  He  was  elected  to  the  New  York 
Assembly  for  the  sessions  of  1827,  1828  and  1829.  This 
was  his  last  position  in  an  elective  office  of  a  political 
character.  The  question  is  naturally  asked,  why  he,  with 
his  gift  of  popular  eloquence,  and  his  adaptation  to  legisla- 
tive and  executive  trusts,  remained  in  private  life  through 
almost  half  a  century  of  stormy  controversy  and  struggle 
over  constitutional,  social  and  domestic  questions,  some  of 
which  were  settled  at  last  before  the  highest,  the  grandest 
tribunal  ever  invoked  to  vindicate  the  rights  of  man  or 
the  honor  of  nations.  Did  he  retire  voluntarily,  a  dreamy 
philosopher,  or  a  morbid  cynic,  with  no  spirit  for  the  fray, 
and  with  no  tastes  or  ambition  for  statesmanship  ?  On 
the  contrary,  he  took  a  deep  interest  in  all  the  politics  of 


244  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

his  time.  He  entertained  most  positive  opinions  ujjon  all 
national  questions,  maintained  them  in  all  national  can- 
vasses, and  was  not  without  ambition.  Indeed,  I  think 
that  while  he  realized  how  much  he  had  won  by  his  con- 
stancy to  his  profession,  he  had  a  somewhat  regretful 
feeling  that,  while  in  his  prime,  and  when  politics  were 
especially  attractive  to  men  of  his  character  and  ability, 
he  had  no  broad  public  career.  It  was  not  the  eclat 
which  may  follow  such  a  career,  which  he  valued  at  its 
worth,  no  more,  that  attracted  him,  but  the  opportunity  of 
public  service.  That  opportunity  he  valued,  and  while  no 
man  with  so  much  deserving  and  capability  could  be  more 
unassuming,  he  had  not  been  without  an  honorable  ambi- 
tion to  impress  his  thought  and  character  upon  the  law 
and  policy  of  the  country.  If  this  be  a  weakness,  it  is  the 
weakness  of  most  able  men  at  some  period  of  their  lives, 
who  live  in  the  stimulating  atmosphere  of  democratic  insti- 
tutions.    Why,  then,  was  not  this  ambition  gratified? 

During  the  period  of  Mr.  Skinner's  service  in  the  legis- 
lature, a  new  element  appeared  in  Western  New  York 
politics,  a  sort  of  Nile  inundation,  breaking  up  and  sweep- 
ing away  all  old  political  organizations.  I  refer  to  anti- 
masonry.  It  took  the  form  of  a  political  party,  and  from 
the  start  was  at  the  white  heat  of  popular  passion.  The 
tide  kept  rapidly  rising,  and  floated  out  on  the  sea  of 
popular  favor  all  the  successful  men  of  that  generation  in 
the  career  of  politics  in  Western  New  York.  To  be  an 
anti-mason  was  to  be  in  the  realm  of  possibilities  for  any 
position  within  the  gift  of  the  local  constituency.  To  be 
of  the  opposition  was  to  be  whelmed  under  a  flood  of 
majorities  which  made  hopeless,  almost  down  to  the 
present  day,  all  political  aspirations  through  popular 
election. 


JOHN    B.    SKINNER,  245 

It  is  not  surprisiny;  that  a  party  which  came  out  as  a 
whirlwind  should  aspire  even  to  national  ascendancy. 
But  as  it  was  local  in  its  origin,  and  was  the  child  of  out- 
raged feeling,  rather  than  of  a  political  idea,  it  shared  the 
fate  of  every  political  organization  in  this  country  which 
is  not  based  upon  party  traditions,  or  does  not  involve  a 
national  policy.  It  lasted  long  enough,  in  localities,  to 
place  men  in  public  relations  who  continued  to  occupy 
and  honor  them,  long  after  the  organization  had  been 
absorbed  in  the  national  opposition  to  the  democratic 
party. 

It  is  a  noticeable  fact,  both  in  the  history  of  England 
and  this  country,  that  every  attempt  to  found  a  new  and 
permanent  political  party  upon  a  sentiment,  or  upon  a 
question  of  morals  or  of  religion,  has  failed.  There  have 
been  temporary  departures  from  traditional  organizations 
upon  some  new  question,  as  in  the  case  of  the  repeal  of 
the  corn  laws  in  England,  but  with  the  attainment  of  the 
end,  the  new  combination  has  dissolved  and  sought  afresh 
its  old  associations. 

In  the  United  States,  a  country  of  few  traditions,  and 
no  aristocratic  institutions,  and  where  so  many  constitu- 
tional questions  have  been  settled  by  the  courts,  or  by 
war,  the  law  of  the  future  development  of  parties  does 
not  appear  on  the  surface.  The  democratic  tendency  of 
the  age  is  so  strong,  that  a  reactionary  party  powerful 
enough  to  contest  with  the  dominant  idea  for  supremacy, 
seems  a  long  way  off.  The  time  is  not  favorable  for 
purely  personal  parties,  and  the  country  is  too  full  of 
talent  and  aspirations,  to  have  public  interest  monopo- 
lized by  one  or  two  men,  as  in  the  times  of  Jackson  and 
Clay.  I  suspect  that  that  law  of  party  development  will 
be  found  to  exist  here,  in  a  large  degree,  as  it  long 
has  existed  in    England,  in  the    inheritable  character  of 


246  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

political  associations,  and  upon  tlic  principle  of  system- 
atic opposition.  I  should  certainly  regard  a  strong  proof 
of  the  sound  political  condition  of  the  country,  the  fact 
that  opposition  to  any  existing  administration  rested,  in 
the  main,  upon  the  principle  of  such  systematic  opposi- 
tion, so  perpetuating  a  party,  vigilant,  ever  ready  to  take 
advantage  of  the  mistakes  of  its  rival,  and  ever  eager  to 
supplant  it  and  abide  the  same  test  of  hostile  scrutiny. 
But  to  return  from  this  episode  into  which  I  have  been 
led. 

Mr.  Skinner,  as  we  shall  see  hereafter,  was  an  intense 
conservative.  His  father  was  a  mason,  and  that  fact  pow- 
erfully influenced  him.  He  could  not  be  floated  off  on 
any  impulsive  tide,  and  he  would  not  hold  an  organiza- 
tion responsible  for  a  crime,  atrocious  as  it  was,  of  a 
few  individual  members.  He  united  with  the  opposition 
to  the  anti-masonic  party,  and  when  the  anti-masonic 
was  merged  in  the  whig  party,  his  attitude  remained  un- 
changed in  the  democratic  organization.  The  result  was 
that  the  standard  3,000  majority  in  "  Old  Genesee,"  anti- 
masonic  and  whig  for  forty  years,  was  as  Ossa  on  Pelion, 
and  both  on  Atlas,  over  the  hopes  and  candidacy  of  every 
man  of  the  minority,  for  political  promotion. 

Mr.  Skinner  was  often  the  candidate  of  his  party  for 
high  honors,  but  the  contest  was  always  a  forlorn  hope  ; 
and  he  led  it  with  characteristic  courage  and  devotion. 

This  conservative  temperament,  which  led  him  to  sym- 
pathize little  with  revolutionary  movements  in  Church 
or  State,  gave  the  tone  to  all  his  public  action.  To 
stand  in  the  ancient  ways,  to  adhere  to  old  compacts, 
to  maintain  the  ancient  reverences,  and  to  heave  the 
lead  every  inch  of  the  way  before  venturing  on  an  un- 
known deep,  was  the  law  of  his  nature.  During  all  the 
revolutionary   movement    in    his    own    Church,    in    1837, 


JOHN   B.   SKINNER.  247 

and  on  all  the  exciting  questions  which  occupied  the 
public  thought  during  the  quarter  of  a  century  previous 
to  the  war,  he  was  a  conservative  every  day  and  every 
minute  of  that  long  controversy.  And,  when  that  is 
said,  we  have  simply  stated  that  his  action  was  in  obe- 
dience to  that  centripetal  principle  which  is  an  element 
as  essential  for  the  safety  of  the  Church  and  the  State, 
as  it  is  for  the  harmony  of  the  planetary  system.  I 
suppose  it  is  vain  to  expect  that  the  radical  element, 
without  which  there  would  be  little  political  progress, 
and  stagnation  would  be  the  reigning  law,  will  ever  be 
at  one  with  its  balancing  conservative  force,  or  that 
either  will  ever  recognize  the  other  but  as  a  foe.  Both 
are  ri<jht  in  themselves,  both  are  wrong  in  their  estimate 
of  each  other.  Each  obeys  the  law  of  its  nature  divinely 
implanted,  and  between  the  two  society  finds  the  middle 
path  of  safety. 

While  Judge  Skinner  was  of  this  type  of  character, 
his  conservatism  was  rational  and  practical.  He  always 
acquiesced  in  the  final  result  of  the  controversy  of 
opinions,  and  was  among  the  earliest  to  seek  to  adjust 
institutions  to  the  new  idea.  I  have  referred  to  the 
revolutionary  movement  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
1837,  one  of  the  results  of  that  "irrepressible  conflict" 
between  the  spirit  of  the  past  and  the  spirit  of  the 
present,  of  which  our  restless  century  has  been  so  fruit- 
ful. He  was  a  Presbyterian  of  the  old  school.  He  could 
be  nothing  else  during  the  controversy.  But  when  time 
and  events  indicated  that  the  largest  good  would  result 
from  the  reunion  of  the  tw^o  bodies,  he  was  of  the  fore- 
most in  preparing  the  way  for  it,  and  no  voice  in  the 
ecclesiastical  assemblies  w^as  more  positive  than  his  in 
urging  that  consummation.  I  well  remember  his  enthu- 
siasm over  the  reunion  after  his  return  from  the  General 


248  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

Assembly  where  the  final  action  was  taken.  Me  tokl 
me  the  story  with  deep  emotion.  He  dramati/.ed  before 
my  mind  the  scene  of  the  Assembly,  its  glowing  oratory, 
its  rapture  and  enthusiasm,  its  spirit  of  Christian  sacrifice 
and  devotion.  The  occasion  was  to  him  a  Mount  of 
Vision  from  which  he  saw  the  future  conquests  over  sin 
and  evil,  through  the  united  power  of  the  Church  he 
loved.  While  there  was  great  firmness,  there  was  no 
pride  of  opinion  in  his  nature.  What  might  have  appeared 
obstinacy  to  those  who  did  not  know  him  well,  was  but 
the  force  of  conviction. 

Judge  Skinner  was  a  man  of  profound  religious  con- 
victions, and  was  broad  and  generous  in  his  religious 
sympathies.  Devoted  as  he  was  to  the  faith  and  interests 
of  his  own  branch  of  the  Church,  he  was  without  sectarian 
narrowness,  and  wherever  he  found  the  act  and  spirit  of 
divine  worship,  he  gave  it  his  Christian  sympathy.  As  an 
illustration,  I  will  relate  an  incident  which  I  am  sure  will 
not  be  misunderstood,  and  I  think  we  may  profitably 
dwell  a  moment  on  this  element  of  a  deeply  religious 
nature.  Soon  after  his  return  from  his  visit  abroad,  in  a 
religious  meeting  of  a  social  character,  he  was  lamenting 
that  so  few  in  Protestant  countries  were  in  the  habit  of 
attendance  upon  public  worship,  and  contrasted  the 
fact  with  what  he  had  observed  in  some  of  the  Catholic 
countries  of  Europe.  He  then  related  a  scene  he  wit- 
nessed in  a  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  the  Tyrol.  It  was 
the  Church  of  St.  Gilgen,  which  forms  so  pleasing  a 
picture  in  Longfellow's  "  Hyperion."  The  scene  was  on 
just  such  a  Sabbath  morning  as  is  described  in  that 
romance,  "  when  the  woods,  and  the  clouds,  and  the 
whole  village,  and  the  very  air  itself  seemed  to  pray — so 
silent  was  it  everywhere."  The  local  peasantry  were  all 
assembled  in  the  old  church,  and  all  engaged  in  acts  of 


JOHN    B.    SKINNER.  249 

worship  and  praise  after  the  methods  which  many  cen- 
turies have  made  sacred  to  the  Tyrolese.  He  drew  before 
our  fancies  a  picture  of  the  deep  reverence  and  solemnity 
of  the  worshipers,  and  we  were  not  left  to  conjecture  the 
impression  made  on  his  own  mind  by  this  universal 
Sabbath  religious  observance.  No  one  who  listened  to 
his  words  could  doubt  that  he  too  was  a  worshiper  with 
that  humble  congregation,  feeling  with  them  the  com- 
mon want  of  our  humanity — rest  for  the  soul,  and  com- 
munion with  the  Infinite  Father.  Their  methods  of 
worship  were  not  his,  but  he  looked  through  and  beyond 
the  externals,  to  the  spirit  they  typify. 

Those  few  words  of  charity  and  feeling,  so  apprecia- 
tive of  the  goodness  of  the  heart  of  God,  who  is  not 
worshiped  in  the  temple  or  on  the  mountain,  but  every- 
where, in  spirit  and  in  truth,  were  more  eloquent  words 
and  more  self-revealing,  than  I  had  ever  before  heard 
from  his  lips.  There  may  be  those,  religious  as  he,  who 
would  not  have  been  so  moved,  in  a  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  to  devotional  sympathy.  But,  surely  he  is  a 
gainer  who  has  the  wisdom  that  distils  "  the  soul  of 
goodness  out  of  things  evil,"  and  that  knows  to  rise  from 
the  poverty  of  the  symbol  to  the  wealth  of  the  thing 
symbolized.  Human  sentiments  and  human  sensibilities 
are  the  choral  harmonies  of  the  temple  of  Humanity. 
He  who  hears  only  discord  in  their  commingled  tones,  is 
as  one  who  may  catch  the  melody  of  a  solitary  note,  but 
has  no  car  for  the  myriad-voiced  creations  of  Beethoven. 

I  have  met  few  men  in  intimate  relations  in  whom  the 
religious  element  was  so  marked  as  in  our  friend.  It 
seemed  a  part  of  his  being.  He  was  orthodox  of  the 
orthodox,  and  accepted  absolutely  the  evangelical  type 
of  Christianity.  But  his  religious  element,  as  appeared 
to  me,  upon  which  this  superstructure  of  faith  was 
17 


250  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

buiUlcd,  lay  beneath  all  formulas,  indeed  all  systems. 
He  would  have  been  religious  in  any  age,  and  under  any 
system  ever  formulated  by  devout  souls.  A  system  fail- 
ing him,  he  would  have  erected  the  Athenian  altar  before 
which  Paul  stood  reverently,  and  worshiped  "the  un- 
known God,  if  haply  he  might  find  him."  It  will  be  easily 
believed  that  such  a  nature  had  a  ready  answer  to  all  the 
materialistic  arguments  of  our  time.  The  primal  truths 
of  religion  with  him,  rested  not  upon  reason,  nor  upon 
logic,  nor  upon  any  of  the  methods  of  the  human  under- 
standing, but  upon  the  instincts  of  the  soul,  its  moral 
consciousness,  and  its  need  of  God :  a  method  of  demon- 
stration which  shivers  at  a  blow  the  whole  fabric  of  mate- 
rialistic negations,  and  is  the  basis  on  which  the  ultimate 
argument  for  religion  must  rest. 

For  man  is  "  an  infant  crying  in  the  night,"  and  his 
hungry  soul  can  no  more  find  Deity  by  logic  than  the 
child  of  yesterday  can  by  logic  find  the  maternal  fountain 
of  its  earthly  life. 

Wordsworth's  Ode  is  our  century's  noblest  interpreta- 
tion of  man's  instinct  of  divinity  : 

Our  birth  is  but  a  sleep  and  a  forgetting : 

The  soul  that  rises  with  us,  our  life's  star, 
Hath  had  elsewhere  its  setting 
And  Cometh  from  afar : 

Not  in  entire  forgetfulness 

And  not  in  utter  nakedness, 

But  trailing  clouds  of  glory  do  we  come 

From  God  who  is  our  home. 

Mr.  Skinner  was  active  as  a  reformer,  ever  recognizing 
the  principle  that  innovation  is  not  reform.  He  had  no 
sympathy  with  slavery,  and,  as  did  many  other  good  men, 
he  at  first  hoped  for  a  solution  of  the  long-unsolved 
American  problem,  in  the  African  Colonization  Society. 
But  the  time  had  not  arrived  for  an  historic  exception  to 


JOHN    B.    SKINNER.  25  [ 

the  law  of  the  past,  that  social  regenerations  come  through 
the  shock  of  revolution.  He  was  active  in  promoting 
that  cause.  He  was  an  ardent  friend  of  the  temperance 
reform,  yet  never  adopting  extreme  opinions  or  favoring 
extreme  action.  While  he  was  judge  I  well  remember  he 
was  a  terror  to  violators  of  the  license  laws.  There  was 
no  form  of  social  evil  that  he  did  not  oppose  with  the 
whole  weight  of  his  influence  and  character. 

He  was  identified  with  the  new  State  reformatory  at 
Warsaw.  He  held  society  responsible  for  its  neglect  of 
the  classes  who,  for  want  of  proper  culture,  grow  up 
vicious  as  well  as  neglected.  He  hoped  little  from  legis- 
lation, but  much  from  voluntary  and  associated  action, 
for  the  elevation  and  reformation  of  the  unfortunate  and 
criminal. 

When  discussing  the  duties  of  society  to  neglected 
youth,  he  sometimes  narrated  an  incident  in  his  profes- 
sional experience.  He  once  volunteered  to  defend  a  lad 
charged  with  a  felony  clearly  proved.  He  was  born  and 
reared  amid  debasing  associations.  Vice  was  his  school- 
master, his  character  the  legitimate  product  of  his  educa- 
tion. He  urged  his  acquittal  upon  the  ground  that 
society  had  failed  of  its  duty  to  the  accused,  having  never 
sought  to  raise  him  to  a  virtuous  life.  The  defense 
appears  sentimental,  but  it  was  successful.  If  the  twelve 
did  wrong  as  jurors,  were  they  wholly  wrong  as  men  ? 
This  incident  reveals  the  principle  of  Mr.  Skinner's  identi- 
fication of  himself  rather  with  measures  of  reform  of 
criminal  }'outh,  than  with  those  which  seek  the  repression 
of  crime  by  vigorous  punishment.  Was  he  not  right  ? 
Can  there  be  any  doubt  that  the  Children's  Aid  Society 
of  New  York,  which  annually  transfers  thousands  of 
youths,  maturing  in  the  gutters  and  hells  of  that  city,  for 
lives  of    crime,   to   homes  of  industry  and   virtue  in    the 


252  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

West,  has  been  worth  to  society,  as  an  educator,  more 
than  a  thousand  prisons? 

When  we  remember  the  barbarism  of  the  criminal  code 
of  fifty  years  ago,  and  the  inhumanity  of  public  senti- 
ment in  relation  to  poor  and  neglected  children,  let  us 
not  doubt  the  progress  of  the  spirit  of  Christianity. 
"  Neither  do  I  condemn  thee,  go  and  sin  no  more,"  is  the 
ideal  of  that  enthusiasm  of  humanity  which  seeks  the 
repression  of  youthful  crime  through  moral  instrumen- 
talities, rather  than  by  the  pillory,  the  whipping-post,  and 
the  chain-gang.  It  would  not  abolish  the  criminal  code, 
but  it  would  humanize  it  and  render  less  necessary  its 
execution. 

Mr.  Skinner  was  as  widely  identified  with  educational 
interests  as  any  man  in  Western  New  York.  He  was  for 
many  years  a  trustee  of  the  Geneseo  Academy,  and  dur- 
ing nearly  his  entire  residence  in  Wyoming  a  trustee  of 
Middlebury  Academy.  He  was  also  a  trustee  of  the 
Ingham  Institute  at  Le  Roy. 

It  may  be  a  surprise  to  some  to  learn  that  Mr.  Skinner, 
many  years  before  his  residence  in  Buffalo,  actively  inter- 
ested himself  in  the  enterprise  to  establish  here  a  uni- 
versity of  high  rank.  He  made  repeated  journeys  for 
consultation  on  the  subject,  and  was  much  disappointed 
when  Rochester  took  the  lead  of  us  and  founded  its  now 
flourishing  college.  He  never  abandoned  his  idea.  Among 
the  last  conversations  I  had  with  him,  he  spoke  of  our 
State  Normal  School  as  the  nucleus  of  a  future  university. 
When  I  called  his  attention  to  the  fact  that  commercial 
towns  had  not  generally  proved  favorable  to  the  growth 
of  universities,  he  abated  nothing  from  his  confidence, 
but  found,  as  he  thought,  in  the  reciprocal  influence  of 
commerce  and  learning,  an  argument  for  so  associating 
them. 


JOHN    B.    SKINNER.  253 

This  enumeration  of  his  official  relations  will  realize  to 
us  that  his  activity  here,  in  connection  with  public  insti- 
tutions, was  no  new-born  zeal,  but  the  habit  and  principle 
of  the  most  active  part  of  his  career. 

In  i860,  Mr.  Skinner  removed  from  Wyoming  to  Buf- 
falo. We  can  hardly  realize  what  a  struggle  this  break 
up  of  old  associations  cost  him.  The  quiet  and  repose  of 
his  beautiful  country  home  and  its  surroundings,  identi- 
fied with  his  tastes  and  affections  as  they  were,  had  be- 
come a  part  of  his  being.  His  local  attachments  were 
very  strong.  The  very  trees  he  planted  grew^  up  as  friends 
to  him.  It  w^as  several  years  after  he  purchased  his 
Buffalo  property,  before  he  could  bring  himself  to  the 
point  of  changing  his  residence.  Once  he  sold  his  Wyo- 
ming home  preparatory  to  the  removal,  but  he  was  so 
unhappy  at  seeing  it  pass  to  other  hands,  that  he  repur- 
chased it,  and  deferred  for  a  considerable  period  his  final 
coming  to  Buffalo.  But  after  his  retirement  from  the 
active  duties  of  his  profession,  he  made  our  city  his 
residence. 

What  he  was  among  us,  from  that  time  to  his  death, 
is  a  part  of  the  history  of  our  charitable,  religious  and 
educational  institutions.  He  united  himself  with  the 
Calvary  Church,  of  which  he  was  a  ruling  officer.  At  the 
time  of  his  death  he  was  president  of  the  Buffalo  Gen- 
eral Hospital,  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Education  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church,  president  of  the  New  York 
State  Asylum  for  the  Blind  at  Batavia,  president  of  the 
Buffalo  State  Normal  School,  vice-president  of  the  Re- 
formatory in  Warsaw,  president  of  the  Erie  County  Bible 
Society,  a  trustee  of  the  Buffalo  Female  Academy  and  a 
trustee  of  the  Buffalo  City  Savings  Bank. 

His  was  not  an  idle  old  age.  His  life  and  talents  he 
held   to  be   sacred   trusts,  and  for  the  ten  years  of  his 


254  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

Buffalo  residence,  except  an  intcrhule  of  eighteen  months 
abroad,  he  devoted  liis  leisure  to  the  duties  of  a  useful 
citizenship. 

It  is  fresh  to  our  recollection  that  he  occupied  himself 
for  weeks,  not  very  long  before  his  decease,  in  endeavoring 
to  persuade  us  to  do  ourselves  good  by  providing  for  the 
payment  of  a  paltry  debt  of  a  few  thousand  dollars — a 
dead  weight  on  the  neck  of  our  hospital.  His  success, 
though  not  comi)lete,  was  as  near  to  completeness  as  any 
charity  enterprise  can  be  with  us  which  is  not  under  the 
auspices  of  woman.  She  alone  can  work  financial  mira- 
cles for  charity,  and  in  her  hopeful  vocabulary  "  there  is 
no  such  word  as  fail."  Happily  the  hospital  is  now  her 
ward. 

In  1867  he  made  a  visit  to  Europe  with  his  family.  I 
doubt  if  it  ever  falls  to  the  lot  of  an  American  traveler 
abroad  to  enjoy  more  than  he  did.  Europe  with  its  art, 
its  culture,  its  incarnation  of  that  past  with  which  America, 
so  fresh,  so  self-asserting,  so  purely  the  creation  of  the 
hopeful,  restless,  revolutionary  present,  has  so  little  sym- 
pathy, kept  all  his  enthusiasm  in  constant  glow.  Almost 
every  day  was  to  him  as  a  new  creation  bringing  with  it 
the  gladness  of  a  fresh  inspiration. 

It  was  while  abroad  that  a  great  sorrow  cast  its  shadow 
over  the  heart  and  home  of  our  friend.  His  only  daughter 
and  child,  and  only  grandchild,  died  while  the  family 
were  in  Switzerland.  It  is  not  for  us  to  lift  the  veil  of 
that  sorrow,  and  I  leave  its  heavy  folds  untouched. 

He  returned  with  the  other  members  of  his  family  in 
December,  1868,  to  resume  his  labors  in  the  many  spheres 
of  beneficent  action  to  which  the  public  had  called  him  ; 
labors  never  suspended  except  by  his  last  sickness  and 
death. 


JOHN   B.    SKINNER.  255 

Of  the  personal  characteristics  of  Mr.  Skinner,  one  of 
the  most  marked  was  his  habit  of  incarnating,  so  to 
speak,  in  himself  every  interest  that  commanded  his 
sympathy.  Whatever  represented  his  opinions  was  in- 
vested with  an  almost  sacred  character.  This  was  true  of 
his  Church,  ever  an  object  of  interest  and  affection.  It 
was  true  of  his  party,  which  to  him  became  personified  in 
its  leaders  who  had  his  confidence.  To  attack  it  was  to 
attack  them  and  to  challenge  their  wisdom,  their  integrity, 
or  their  patriotism.  Their  honor  he  made  his  own.  He 
was  an  enthusiast.  A  speech  that  much  interested  him 
was  always  "  eloquent."  A  sermon  which,  on  a  different 
temperament  would  make  little  impression,  often  pro- 
foundly impressed  him.  Sympathy  was  the  touchstone 
that  transmuted  everything  into  gold.  This  tempera- 
ment gave  a  warm  coloring  to  many  a  sky  which  had 
been  leaden  to  other  natures.  I  speak  of  his  later  years, 
for  during  his  middle  life  he  was  a  great  sufferer  from 
nervous  depression,  but  this  had  all  passed  away  before 
he  came  among  us,  and  we  were  accustomed  to  look  at 
his  face  as  the  sign  of  cheer  and  hope,  so  beaming  was  it 
with  kindliness  and  joy. 

Great  simplicity  and  dignity  of  character  were  com- 
bined in  him.  He  was  proud  in  the  sense  in  which  honor 
and  conscious  integrity  have  a  right  to  be  proud,  but  his 
was  a  latent  pride,  a  covert  fortress  for  the  defense  of 
character  and  self-respect.  There  was  something  of  the 
old  chivalry  in  his  nature.  He  paid  reverence  where  it 
was  due.  There  was  ever  in  his  bearing  that  courtesy 
and  regard  for  the  sensibility  of  others  which  constitute 
the  highest  charm  of  social  manners.  His  ordinary 
method  of  speech  was  subdued  and  gentle.  Baseness 
would  rouse  him  from  his  usual  calm,  and  then  it  was 
made  to  feel  the  force  of  his  indignation.     He  was  faith- 


256  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

fill  to  tlic  obligations  of  friendship,  and  to  old  friends  he 
clung  with  romantic  attachment. 

He  was  twice  married.  In  1830,  to  Catharine,  only 
daughter  of  Mr.  Richard  M.  Stoddard  of  Le  Roy.  She 
died  in  1832,  leaving  no  children.  He  was  again  married 
in  1837  to  Sarah  A.,  daughter  of  Mr.  Henry  G.  Walker 
of  Wyoming.  Their  only  child  was  the  late  Mrs.  Josiah 
Letchworth.  He  died  June  6,  1871,  after  a  few  weeks' 
illness. 

His  last  years,  with  the  exception  of  the  single  sorrow 
to  which  I  have  alluded,  were  serene  and  happy.  He  had 
won  all  which  professional  eminence  and  purity  of  char- 
acter could  secure  to  him, — reputation,  ample  fortune, 
private  esteem  and  public  respect.  His  life  had  been 
widely  useful,  his  example  pure. 

Death  found  him  amid  the  sweets  of  friendship  and  the 
ministrations  of  love,  his  pathway  to  eternity  luminous 
with  the  ligfht  of  religion. 


MILLARD    FILLMORE.  257 


MILLARD    FILLMORE. 

Remarks  before  the  Buffalo  Historical  Society,  on  Seconding 
Resolutions  upon  the  Occasion  of  the  Death  of  Ex-President 
Fillmore. 


Mr.  President: 

How  much  of  the  renown  and  glory  of  our  city  have 
departed  within  the  past  week !  Our  two  most  illustrious 
citizens,  eminent  alike  in  private  virtues  and  distinguished 
public  services,  have  in  quick  succession  been  summoned 
away.  It  is  within  a  single  week  that  we  were  startled  by 
the  intelligence  that  the  pure,  the  incorruptible,  the  great- 
hearted Hall  was  cut  down  in  the  midst  of  his  usefulness 
and  honor.  To-day  we  stand,  as  it  were,  by  the  grave  of 
his  first  friend,  whose  public  career  was  crowned  with  the 
highest  honors  of  the  republic,  and  whose  private  life 
blossomed  and  fruited  with  every  gentle  humanity,  with 
every  charm  of  friendship,  and  every  social  grace.  No, 
sir,  I  do  wrong  in  saying  that  the  renown  and  glory 
reflected  from  this  citizenship  have  departed.  The  sun  of 
a  great  character  never  sets.  The  beauty  and  lustre  of 
their  lives  will  be  a  lasting  inspiration. 

I  know  the  loss  we  are  called  upon  to  mourn  to-day  is 
national.  I  know  that  the  character  and  fame  of  Mr.  Fill- 
more belong  to  the  country  and  to  mankind.  But  there 
is  a  peculiar  sense  in  which  his  loss  is  ours.  He  was  our 
neighbor  and  friend.  He  had  aided  in  forming  nearly  all 
our  institutions  of  art,  charity  and  education,  and  he  gave 
the  weight  of  his  great  name  and  character  to  every  valu- 


258  ADDRESSES   AND   MISCELLANIES. 

able  enterprise  which  sought  to  promote  our  social  inter- 
ests. He  took  upon  himself  every  burden  imposed  for  the 
public  good,  and  his  hand  and  his  voice,  his  heart  and  his 
purse  were  ever  at  the  service  of  his  fellow-citizens. 
Then  he  was  a  part  of  our  daily  personal  life.  In  the 
street,  at  his  own  hospitable  home,  in  all  our  homes,  he 
was  ever  and  always  the  same  courteous  gentleman — the 
same  appreciative  friend,  the  kind  neighbor,  seeking  by 
good  and  unostentatious  offices  to  make  others  happy. 
Wherever  he  was  he  created  an  atmosphere  of  kindliness 
and  cheer — most  felt  and  most  appreciated  by  those  who 
stood  most  in  need  of  social  sympathy.  His  personal 
relation  to  Buffalo  he  always  recognized  and  spoke  of 
with  interest  and  affection. 

But  we  may  be  permitted  here  to  dwell  for  a  moment 
on  the  broader  side  of  the  life  of  Mr.  Fillmore.  He  rose 
to  the  foremost  rank  of  American  statesmen,  and  his  life 
and  character  in  his  public  career  have  become  a  part 
of  the  permanent  history  of  his  country  and  his  time. 
What  was  the  secret  of  that  marvelous  success  which 
took  the  modest  apprentice,  with  little  advantage  of  early 
education,  by  rapid  steps  from  the  legislative  hall  of  his 
own  State  to  the  presidential  office  ?  It  was  not  by  genius, 
it  was  not  by  the  skillful  combination  of  force  through 
political  necromancy,  and,  least  of  all,  it  was  not  by  the 
low  arts  of  that  lowest  of  all  characters  that  ever  crawls 
to  high  places — the  arts  of  the  demagogue — that  he  was 
borne  to  this  dazzling  elevation.  What  then  was  the 
secret  of  this  success  so  rapid  and  so  brilliant?  It  may 
be  expressed  in  these  three  words,  adequacy,  fidelity, 
opportunity.  He  never  entered  upon  an  office  that  he 
did  not  at  once  rise  to  its  plane  and  demonstrate  his 
ability  to  fill  it.  His  character  challenged  public  con- 
fidence, and  won  it  from  his  very  entrance  upon  the  race. 


MILLARD    FILLMORE.  259 

He  dazzled  nobod}'  by  his  brilliancy,  but  he  set  himself 
at  hard  work  in  the  legislature  of  his  own  State  and  in 
congress,  and,  leaving  to  whoever  sought  it,  the  reputation 
of  genius,  he  won  the  solid  fame  which  follows  honest 
work  wrcHight  out  into  beneficent  legislation  and  public 
policy.  As  an  illustration  of  this,  take  his  labors  as 
chairman  of  the  committee  of  ways  and  means  in  con- 
gress in  1842.  A  new  administration  came  into  power 
upon  the  issue  of  a  revision  of  the  revenue  policy.  A 
revision  of  the  tariff  was  a  great  measure  of  the  then 
dominant  whig  party,  and  to  the  enormous  details 
attending  it  Mr.  Fillmore  addressed  himself  with  charac- 
teristic patience  and  industry.  He  devoted  months  to 
its  study.  He  mastered  it  in  all  its  details,  and  the 
whole  complex  system  became  to  him  as  his  ABC.  He 
was  upon  the  floor  of  congress  during  the  long  debate  for 
the  measure  what  Sir  Robert  Peel,  to  whom  he  bears  a 
strong  resemblance  in  character,  was  in  the  house  of 
commons  in  a  similar  discussion — master  of  the  situation. 
The  most  insignificant  item  of  our  commerce  and  all  its 
relations  to  our  industry,  he  understood  as  a  master.  No 
skill  in  debate  could  disconcert  him.  He  was  always 
ready,  always  master  of  the  facts,  and  as  such  he  carried 
through  both  his  measures  and  himself.  He  came  out  of 
that  congress  with  a  national  reputation  as  a  practical, 
honest,  adequate  statesman.  As  such  his  own  State 
accepted  him,  and  made  haste  to  crown  him  with  the 
highest  proofs  of  her  confidence  and  esteem.  He  barely 
failed  of  an  election  by  his  party  as  governor,  having  for 
his  opponent  by  far  the  ablest  and  most  popular  man  of 
the  opposition — a  man  like  Mr.  Fillmore  in  many  of  his 
characteristics — a  man  whom  New  York  will  long  cherish 
as  one  of  her  noblest,  purest,  best  of  sons — Silas  Wright. 
He  was  elected  comptroller  subsequently,  an  office  hardly 


26o  ADDRESSES  AND   MISCELLANIES. 

to  his   taste,  yet  one  whose   duties  he   discharged   with 
great  ability. 

And  from  this  office  he  is  transferred  to  the  broader 
sphere  of  national  politics.  His  nomination  as  vice- 
president  was  simply  the  recognition  of  his  prominence 
already  won,  both  in  his  own  State  and  at  Washington. 
The  death  of  his  lamented  colleague.  General  Taylor, 
imposed  upon  him  as  the  executive  of  the  nation,  some 
of  the  highest  responsibilities  of  government.  And  here 
we  enter  upon  ground  where  the  ashes  of  a  fire  intensified 
by  every  element  of  human  interest,  ambition,  sentiment 
and  passion,  are  still  warm,  if  not  of  burning  heat.  That 
struggle  and  its  incidents  and  surroundings  and  its  master 
leaderships,  who  that  witnessed  it  will  ever  forget  ?  It 
was  the  battle  of  the  giants,  almost  the  last  great  conflict 
of  the  political  leaders  of  the  first  half  of  our  century, 
Webster,  Clay,  Calhoun,  Douglas,  Chase,  Seward,  and 
others  of  less  fame,  leading  the  conflict  with  all  the  fire 
of  genius  and  all  the  enthusiasm  of  conviction.  Can  we 
have  any  doubt  that  the  moral  providence  which  governs 
the  world,  overruled  that  strife  for  the  best — best  for 
the  country — best  for  the  ultimate  triumph  of  principles 
of  human  freedom  ?  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  Mr. 
Fillmore  came  to  the  administration  of  the  government 
in  the  transition  period  of  public  sentiment  and  interest 
on  the  slavery  question.  Mr.  Fillmore  called  about  him 
some  of  the  wisest  statesmanship  of  the  land — and  when 
the  law-making  branch  of  the  government  presented 
him  a  scheme  for  the  final  settlement  of  the  disturbing 
questions  of  the  hour,  he  had  but  to  satisfy  himself  they 
violated  no  constitutional  principle,  and  to  give  it  his 
executive  sanction.  Mr.  Fillmore  regarded  the  com- 
promise measures  a  finality  and  pledge  that  every  advan- 
tage which  had  been  given  to  freedom  and  to  free  territory 


MILLARD   FILLMORE.  26 1 

by  the  settlement  of  1821,  should  remain  forever  intact. 
But  this,  sir,  is  for  History,  and  to  her  calm  judgment  I 
would  leave  every  act  and  every  actor  in  that  great  drama. 
Mr.  Fillmore's  administration  was  an  eminently  con- 
servative one,  as  was  his  character.  Let  me  give  a  single 
illustration.  The  brilliant  Kossuth,  before  he  landed 
upon  our  shores  the  guest  of  the  nation,  had  kindled 
an  enthusiasm  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  almost  wild 
with  very  passion.  His  advent  to  the  country  was  the 
beginning  of  an  ovation  until  his  departure,  which  has 
no  parallel  in  our  history.  Fascinating  everybody  by  the 
charm  of  his  genius  and  the  magic  spell  of  his  eloquence, 
he  had  one  single  purpose,  which  for  a  moment  he  never 
lost  sight  of,  and  which  he  pressed  upon  the  popular 
attention  every  day  and  almost  every  hour  of  his  stay. 
It  was  to  induce  our  government  and  people  to  interfere 
in  the  dispute  between  Hungary  and  Austria.  In  short, 
to  intervene  between  the  contestants  and  so  secure  to 
Hungary  its  independence.  Kossuth  was  feted  every- 
where, and  almost  everybody  seemed  to  lose  their  senses 
when  under  this  wonderful  magnetic  force  of  genius 
and  patriotism.  After  the  dinner  given  in  his  honor  at 
Washington,  at  which  both  Mr.  Webster  and  Mr.  Seward 
crowned  him  with  the  richest  garlands  of  their  own 
genius,  he  presented  himself  to  the  president  and  formally 
made  known  his  wants  and  almost  demanded  the  inter- 
ference which  had  been  the  text  of  all  his  appeals  to  the 
country.  This  was  wholly  unexpected  by  Mr.  Fillmore  ; 
but  he  was  not  thrown  off  his  poise,  and  in  a  few  cool 
but  direct  and  forcible  words,  stated  to  the  patriot  and 
enthusiast,  that  our  government  adheres  to  the  principles 
laid  down  by  Washington,  that  it  would  form  no  entang- 
ling alliances  with  foreign  powers,  and  there  could  be  no 
departure  from  that  policy.     From  that  hour,  Kossuth's 


262  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

mission  as  a  propa<^aiulist  of  liis  wild  opinions  was  a 
failure,  and  the  country  was  brout^dit  back  to  its  "  pauscr 
reason." 

I  have  said  Mr.  Fillmore  was  a  conservative  statesman. 
I  recognize  the  value  at  times  of  less  cautious  statesman- 
ship. I  know  no  other  remedy  for  deep-seated  abuses  in 
Church  or  State  but  that  force  in  society  we  call  radicalism. 
But  I  know  that  without  its  complement,  conservatism,  it 
is  like  Phaeton  driving  the  coursers  of  the  sun,  marking 
his  track  with  desolation  and  ruin.  Mr.  Fillmore,  like  his 
friend  and  his  chosen  colleague  in  the  government,  Mr. 
Webster,  was  in  sympathy  with  every  humane  sentiment, 
but  he  looked  upon  our  government  as  a  delicate  and  com- 
plicated organization,  full  of  checks  and  balances  and 
constitutional  restraints,  and  it  was  not  his  nature  to 
hazard  any  uncertain  experiments,  or  for  slight  causes 
to  make  any  departure  from  the  track  laid  down  by  the 
fathers  of  the  constitution.     He  stood  by  the  ancient  ways. 

Mr.  Fillmore's  name  was  the  synonym  of  integrity  and 
honor,  and  the  story  of  his  rise  from  the  humblest  begin- 
ning to  the  heights  of  human  distinction,  like  that  of 
Lincoln,  will  be  an  inspiration  to  American  youth  for 
ages  to  come.  His  unpurchased,  unsullied  career  under 
our  republican  institutions,  is  a  patent  of  nobility  more 
lasting  and  more  noble  than  was  ever  bestowed  by  the 
hands  of  anointed  kings. 

It  is  fitting  that  as  a  society  we  honor  his  memory. 
He  was  its  early  friend,  was  present  at  its  birth,  watched 
with  interest  all  its  career,  enriched  its  archives,  and  by 
his  large  intelligence  and  quick  sympathies  imparted  a 
fresh  interest  to  almost  its  every  meeting  down  to  his  last 
illness. 

It  is  but  about  four  weeks  since,  after  the  reading  of  a 
very  interesting  paper  upon  Japan  by  Mr.  Shepard,  he 


MILLARD   FILLMORE.  263 

gave  us  an  account  of  the  first  movement  made  to  open 
that  country  to  the  commercial  intercourse  of  Western 
Europe  and  America.  It  is  to  the  honor  of  his  admin- 
istration, that  the  policy  was  inaugurated  which  broke 
down  Japan's  walls  of  exclusion,  and  prepared  her  for  the 
great  advance  she  has  made  towards  a  higher  civiliza- 
tion and  renovated  institutions. 

But  I  have  trespassed  too  long  already,  and  I  second 
the  resolutions  offered. 


264  ADDRESSES  AND    MISCELLANIES. 


NATHAN    K.    HALL. 

A  Memorial  Paper  read  before  the  Buffalo  Historical 
Society,  March  30,  1S74. 


The  early  days  of  March,  '74,  will  long  be  associated 
with  national  bereavement  and  sorrow.  An  ex-president, 
universally  honored,  and  his  first  friend  and  chosen  asso- 
ciate in  the  conduct  of  the  government,  both  brought 
into  the  most  responsible  of  human  relations  at  a  period 
in  our  history  almost  revolutionary,  both  conservative  by 
temperament,  by  habits  of  thought,  and  by  that  awful 
sense  of  responsibility  which  rejects  the  impulses  of 
enthusiasm  for  the  guidance  of  a  passionless  judgment, 
paying  their  highest  political  homage  to  constitutional 
obligation  as  the  basis  of  all  good  faith  between  States 
and  the  strongest  bond  of  federal  union,  were  summoned 
from  our  midst  in  startling  succession. 

While  we  were  paying  the  last  offices  to  our  own  great 
dead,  fell  in  his  high  place  in  the  national  capital,  a  son 
of  New  England,*  born  to  fortune,  born  to  education  and 
to  the  rarest  culture  of  the  rarest  gifts  ;  endowed  with 
genius  and  courage,  and  a  love  of  his  race  which  inspired 
a  long  and  illustrious  career  that  will  keep  his  name  in 
grateful  memory  so  long  as  freedom  is  precious,  and  sla- 
very hateful  to  mankind.  Viewing  some  of  the  great 
questions  of  their  time  from  different  points  of  observa- 
tion and  responsibility,  yet  seeking  a  common  end — the 

*  Senator  Sumner. 


NATHAN    K.    HALL.  265 

advancement  of  the  best  interests  of  the  country  and  the 
human  race — each  discharged  his  duty  with  a  conscien- 
tiousness and  patriotism  worthy  the  golden  age  of  the 
republic.  This  sad  time  is  not  without  its  lessons,  and  to 
those  who  deprecate  the  injustice  of  partisan  controversy, 
not  without  its  consolations. 

You  have  devolved  upon  me  the  office  of  preparing  a 
sketch  of  the  life  and  character  of  Judge  Hall.  Happily 
he  has  left  a  brief  autobiography  of  his  early  years,  de- 
signed for  his  family  only,  but  which  I  have  been  kindly 
permitted  to  consult  for  the  purposes  of  this  paper. 

Nathan  Kelsey  Hall  was  born  in  Marcellus,  Onondaga 
county,  New  York,  March  10,  18 10.  His  father,  Ira  Hall, 
son  of  Dr.  Jonathan  Hall,  a  practicing  physician  of  that 
towm,  resided  with  Nathan  Kelsey  at  the  time  of  his  son's 
birth.  Of  Mr.  Kelsey,  Judge  Hall  speaks  as  "a  substan- 
tial farmer  in  the  best  sense  of  the  term,  a  man  of  strong 
mind  and  excellent  judgment,  unswerving  integrity  and 
wise  benevolence."  In  the  family  of  Mr.  Kelsey,  young 
Nathan  lived  until  about  sixteen  years  of  age,  and  was  to 
them  as  a  son.  The  autobiography  to  which  I  have  re- 
ferred, speaks  of  his  relation  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Kelsey  in 
terms  of  filial  affection.  They  manifested  the  deepest 
interest  in  his  welfare  and  watched  his  career  with  satis- 
faction and  pride.  His  educational  advantages  were  such 
as  were  afforded  by  the  district-school,  in  which  he  was 
thoroughly  instructed  in  the  primary  elements  of  our 
English  education.  His  teacher  for  several  winters  was 
the  late  Moulton  Farnham,  Esq.,  of  Attica,  an  excellent 
lawyer  and  estimable  gentleman.  When  not  in  school 
he  assisted  on  the  farm  in  the  usual  occupations  of  a 
farming  lad. 
18 


266  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

In  1818  I\Ir.  Hall's  father  moved  into  Eric  county,  set- 
tling pennancnth-  in  Wales,  where  he  followed  his  trade 
and  kept  up  a  small  farm.  In  1826  young  Hall  took  his 
adieu  of  the  Kelseys  and  went  to  live  with  his  father. 
Says  the  sketch,  narrating  this  part  of  his  history:  "I 
parted  from  Mr.  Kelsey,  tears  streaming  from  the  eyes  of 
both  of  us,  and  was  soon  on  my  way  to  the  West."  He 
was  for  a  few  weeks,  after  rejoining  his  father's  family,  a 
clerk  in  the  store  of  Alba  Blodgell,  in  Alexander,  Gene- 
see county.  His  father  was  a  leather  and  shoe  manufact- 
urer, and  Judge  Hall  makes  a  playful  reference  to  his 
own  attempts  in  those  arts.  "After  my  return  from 
Alexander,"  he  writes,  "  I  remained  for  a  time  at  Wales, 
working  part  of  the  time  in  a  sugar-orchard  and  the  res- 
idue in  the  shoe-shop,  where  I  soon  learned  to  tap  coarse 
shoes  and  boots  in  a  very  coarse  way.  I  believe  I  even 
succeeded  in  making  a  pair  of  small  and  very  coarse 
shoes.  Still  I  can  boast  of  no  great  success  as  a  son  of 
St.  Crispin,  and  when  I  left  the  shop  there  was  no  very 
serious  violation  of  the  good  old  adage,  '  Let  the  shoe- 
maker stick  to  his  last.'  " 

Efforts  were  at  this  time  made  to  secure  him  a  situation 
in  a  store  at  Aurora.  They  failed,  and  then  application 
was  made  to  Millard  Fillmore,  at  that  time  a  practicing 
lawyer  at  y\urora,  to  take  him  as  a  student  in  his  office. 
Here  was  the  turning  point  in  young  Hall's  life.  The 
failure  to  secure  a  merchant's  clerkship  gave  the  nation 
the  statesman  and  jurist.  Mr.  Hall  gives  the  following 
account  of  his  entrance  upon  his  new  vocation,  and  of  his 
occupation  and  early  struggles  : 

On  the  first  day  of  May,  1826,  I  left  the  tan-yard  and  the 
shoe-shop  for  the  law-office.  Mr.  Fillmore  had  a  small  office, 
a  well  selected  law-library  of  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  vol- 
umes, and  a  village-library  of  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  vol- 


NATHAN    K.    HALL.  267 

umes  was  kept  in  his  office,  he  being  the  librarian.  Mr.  Fill- 
more was  then  twenty-six  years  old  and  not  yet  admitted  to 
the  Supreme  Court.  His  business  was  small,  and  when  not 
employed  in  writing,  I  spent  my  time  in  reading  very  assidu- 
ously such  law-books  as  he  directed,  and  such  miscellaneous 
books  from  the  village-library  as  his  or  my  judgment  approved. 
In  this  way  I  spent  six  months  in  his  office,  and  then  took  a 
district-school  about  three  miles  from  my  father,  and  taught  it 
for  three  months  at  eleven  dollars  per  month,  probably  as 
much  as  my  services  were  worth.  At  the  end  of  the  school- 
term  I  returned  to  Mr.  Fillmore's  office,  a  wiser,  if  not  a 
better  youth,  and  again  entered  upon  my  legal  studies.  I 
continued  my  studies  with  great  assiduity,  being  sometimes 
employed  as  surveyor  by  private  persons  and  by  the  commis- 
sioners of  highways,  at  one  dollar  and  fifty  cents  and  two  dol- 
lars per  day.  Mr.  Fillmore  was  glad  to  render  the  same 
services  for  the  commissioners  of  highways  and  citizens  of 
Aurora. 

Who  could  cast  the  horoscope  on  that  eventful  first 
of  May,  and  foretell  the  fortunes  of  those  two,  both 
poor,  both  unknown  and  unpatronized,  neither  with  any 
dream  that  the  future  had  anything  for  them  beyond 
honorable,  independent  and  comparatively  obscure  lives  ? 
The  one  but  a  few  years  out  of  his  apprenticeship  to  an 
honorable  and  useful  trade,  and  the  other  from  the  farm 
and  shop,  and  there  beginning  an  association  which 
should  stretch  out  through  almost  half  a  century,  culmi- 
nating in  a  mutual  friendship  that  knew  no  waning,  and 
bearing  them  together  to  the  highest  seats  of  power  and 
honor.  Viewed  in  the  light  of  their  career  and  of  the 
sad  pageants  of  this  month  of  March,  that  morning  scene 
is  most  suggestive. 

I  find  in  a  memorandum-book  which  young  Hall 
opened  on  the  day  he  entered  Mr.  Fillmore's  office,  the 
following  entry : 


268  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

Clerk  uiul  student  at  law  in  M.  Fillmore's  office,  Aurora. 
Motto — integrity,  industry  and  perseverance  will  lead  to  honor, 
riches  and  universal  esteem. 

July  4,  1829.  N.  K.  Hall. 

This  motto  is  repeated,  and  so  emphasized,  on  another 
page.  It  is  worthy  of  Franklin,  and  furnished  the  key- 
note of  his  after-life.  In  the  sense  in  which  he  used  the 
term  "  riches" — independence — his  life  was  an  illustration 
of  his  motto. 

Mr.  Hall  continued  with  Mr.  Fillmore  in  Aurora,  teach- 
ing school  winters,  surveying  as  opportunity  offered,  and 
so  continued  until  July,  1831,  when  he  entered  the  office 
of  the  Holland  Land  Company,  as  clerk,  under  the  late 
Col.  Ira  A.  Blossom,  the  local  agent.  He  remained  in  this 
new  relation  thirteen  months,  still  keeping  up  his  legal 
studies  during  leisure  hours.  Of  Col.  Blossom  he  speaks 
in  grateful  terms,  as  one  of  his  warmest  friends.  On  the 
fifteenth  of  November,  1832,  Mr.  Fillmore  invited  him  to 
a  partnership,  Mr.  Hall  having  been  admitted  to  the  bar 
as  attorney  and  solicitor  the  July  preceding. 

With  the  formation  of  this  partnership,  we  find  him 
fairly  started  on  his  professional  career,  fully  equipped  by 
character,  by  application  to  business  and  capacity  for 
work,  for  all  the  success  he  could  fairly  win.  He  was 
soon  selected  for  various  local  trusts.  A  list  of  his  early 
official  positions  is  a  high  eulogium  on  his  character  and 
qualifications. 

In  the  year  1839  Mr.  Hall,  having  been  appointed  by 
Governor  Seward  Master  in  Chancery,  formed  a  partner- 
ship with  O.  H.  Marshall,  Esq.,  which  continued  one 
year.  In  1842  he  formed  a  partnership  with  Dennis 
Bo  wen,  Esq.,  which  was  dissolved  in  1850.  But  previ- 
ously to  these  later  relations,  and  on  the  tenth  of  January, 
1836,  was  formed  that  professional  triumvirate  which  has 


NATHAN   K.    HALL.  269 

become  historic,  and  which  was  destined  to  a  controlHng 
influence  both  in  the  State  and  Nation.  The  huv-firm  of 
Filhnore,  Hall  &  Haven  was  then  organized,  Mr.  Fillmore 
being  just  thirty-six  years  of  age,  Mr.  Hall  twenty-eight 
and  Mr.  Haven  about  twenty-six.  I  doubt  if  the  history 
of  the  country  affords  a  parallel  instance  of  three  young 
men  so  associated  professionally,  with  none  of  those  aids 
which  established  family  position,  or  wealth,  or  liberal 
education  are  supposed  to  give,  attaining  severally  such 
professional  and  political  eminence,  and  that  without 
jealousy  of  each  other,  and  with  the  most  perfect  loyalty 
to  their  mutual  friendship.  Each  brought  to  the  com- 
mon stock  talents  peculiarly  his  own,  and  all  were  able 
lawyers. 

Will  you  permit  me  to  linger  a  moment  over  the 
memory  of 

MR.   HAVEN. 

He  was  unquestionably  one  of  the  most  rarely  endowed 
men  we  have  ever  had  among  us.  As  a  nisi pr ins  lawyer 
Western  New  York  had  not  his  superior.  He  had  no  elo- 
quence, never  carried  juries  by  the  storm  of  passion  or 
the  magnetic  power  of  what  we  call  genius.  But  some- 
how he  carried  them.  He  was  simple,  but  clear  and 
direct  in  presenting  a  case,  and  no  man  found  readier 
access  to  the  understandings  and  sympathies  of  the  for- 
midable twelve  men.  He  was  always  cool,  never  betrayed 
into  confessed  surprise,  was  full  of  resources,  and  went 
through  a  trial  with  the  tone  and  air  of  a  master.  Com- 
mon sense,  good  nature,  a  ready  wit,  a  bright  intellect,  a 
winning  address,  were  the  great  elements  of  his  power 
over  a  jury.  In  a  political  canvass,  the  same  character- 
istics made  him  the  most  popular  of  men  before  an  audi- 
ence. His  pleasantry  always  amused,  while  his  logic 
convinced,  and  his  unbounded  good  humor  made  him  a 


270  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELT^ANIES. 

uni\crs;il  favorite.  Diirinq;  the  six  years  he  was  in  con- 
gress he  was  one  of  the  most  useful  of  its  members.  Mr. 
Washburn,  our  present  minister  to  France,  who  was  in 
congress  with  him,  but  not  always  in  poHtical  sympathy, 
told  me  that  on  other  than  purely  part}'  (juestions,  Mr. 
Haven  was  the  most  influential  member  of  the  bod}'. 
Every  member  knew  that  he  brought  integrity  and  intel- 
ligence to  the  study  of  every  question  of  public  interest 
before  the  house,  and  that  it  was  safe  to  follow  his  lead 
He  died  in  the  maturity  of  his  powers,  too  early  for  his 
many  friends,  too  early  for  the  country  he  could  serve  so 
well.  Remembering  the  associated  and  distinguished 
careers  of  those  three  men,  there  is  a  touching  pathos  in 
their  last  repose,  side  by  side,  in  our  city  of  the  dead. 

Judge  Hall  brought  to  his  profession  perfect  con.scien- 
tiousness,  great  industry,  dispatch  of  business  in  hand,  a 
clear,  analytical  mind,  in  short,  every  element  which  goes 
to  make  a  complete  office-lawyer  and  a  safe  counselor. 
He  was  an  admirable  commercial  lawyer.  This  was 
clearly  revealed  to  the  public,  when  in  1842  he  was 
appointed  first  Judge  of  the  old  Court  of  Common  Pleas 
of  Erie  county.  Before  his  advent  to  the  bench  of  that 
court  it  had  no  standing  as  a  commercial  court.  But 
during  Judge  Hall's  term  of  service  it  was  acknowledged 
to  rank  among  the  foremost  of  the  State.  But  it  was  as 
an  equity  lawyer  that  he  was  pre-eminent.  His  nice 
sense  of  justice,  his  patience  in  investigation,  and  his  love 
of  those  broad  principles  of  equity  which  are  the  basis 
of  all  just  dealing  between  men,  his  ready  sympathy  witli 
cestui  que  trusts,  who  as  widows,  or  as  orphans  and  in- 
fants, held  relations  of  dependence  upon  trustees,  all 
inclined  him  to  make  equity  jurisprudence  his  specialty 
as  a  lawyer.  When  he  left  the  profession  to  take  a  place 
in   Mr.  Fillmore's   cabinet,  his    reputation  as  an  equity- 


NATHAN    K.    HALL.  2/1 

lawyer  was  second  to  that  of  no  man  in  Western  New 
York.  And  there  can  be  no  doubt,  had  he  continued 
the  practice  of  his  profession,  he  would  have  achieved 
great  distinction  in  his  favorite  branch  of  legal  study,  and 
reaped  the  just  reward  of  his  diligence  and  learning. 

The  character  of  his  mind  was  rather  analytical  than 
creative.  He  had  no  warmth  of  imagination,  no  fervid 
fancy.  He  had  a  thorough  knowledge  of  legal  princi- 
ples, and  that  integrity  of  mind  which  not  only  never 
imposed  upon  others  but  did  not  permit  him  to  impose 
upon  himself.  He  had  a  calm  temperament,  a  habit  of 
patient  investigation,  a  sound  judgment,  a  ready  applica- 
tion of  legal  principles  to  the  case  in  hand.  How  highly 
these  characteristics  were  appreciated  by  his  professional 
brethren  appeared  in  his  popularity  as  a  referee  while  he 
was  in  the  profession.  I  think  it  safe  to  say  that  no 
Buffalo  lawyer,  at  the  time  I  refer  to,  was  so  frequently 
chosen  to  act  as  referee  in  important  cases. 

In  August,  1852,  Judge  Hall  was  appointed  by  Presi- 
dent Fillmore  United  States  District  Judge  of  the  North- 
ern District  of  New  York.  This  office  he  held  for  nearly 
twenty-two  years,  discharging  its  duties  with  a  fidelity  and 
ability  which  rank  him  among  the  most  laborious,  useful 
and  upright  of  the  federal  judiciary.  He  entered  upon 
the  office  at  a  new  era  in  its  relations  to  our  inland  com- 
merce. The  business  upon  the  lakes  had  within  a  few 
years  very  largely  increased,  giving  rise  to  much  litigation 
to  be  settled  by  the  principles  of  maritime  law.  It  had 
then  recently  been  decided  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  that  our  inland  lakes  were  within  its  admi- 
ralty jurisdiction.  This  threw  upon  Judge  Hall's  court  a 
large  amount  of  litigation  involving  principles  and  prac- 
tice peculiar  to  admiralty  law.  This  was  an  entirely  new 
field  to  him,  and  he  entered   upon  it  as  a  student,  with  a 


272  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

diligence  and  zeal  wliicli  made  him  master  of  that  branch 
of  the  hiw.  I  liavc  been  tokl  tliat  wlien  first  iinited  to 
hold  a  term  of  the  District  Court  in  New  York,  there 
were  several  important  admiralty  cases  on  the  calendar 
which  counsel  were  disposed  to  put  over  the  term,  feeling 
that  an  inland  judge  could  know  little  law  governing  cases 
connected  with  ocean  commerce.  Ikit  on  the  trial  of  one 
or  two  such  cases  before  him,  the  profession  were  sur- 
prised by  his  profound  knowledge  of  the  principles  of  the 
admiralty  law,  and  he  was  ever  after  one  of  the  most 
popular  judges  called  to  preside  at  the  New  York  Circuit. 
His  selection  was  always  hailed  as  a  happy  fortune  for  the 
bar  and  for  suitors.  His  new  career  as  judge  imposed  upon 
him  the  necessity  of  studying  another  and  very  difficult 
branch  of  law,  that  of  patents,  an  exclusive  specialty  even 
among  lawyers.  He  thoroughly  mastered  it,  and  his  opin- 
ion became  high  authority.  The  complicated  system  of 
our  revenue  laws  imposed  upon  him  fresh  labor,  and  to  no 
judge  is  the  country  more  indebted  than  to  him  for  a  just 
interpretation  and  enforcement  of  the  revenue  laws.  After 
the  passage  of  the  present  bankrupt  law  his  court  was  lit- 
erally overwhelmed  with  questions  requiring  discrimina- 
tion, judgment  and  learning  to  solve.  With  the  enormous 
labors  of  this  court  before  this  fresh  draft  upon  his  ener- 
gies, it  is  easy  to  see  that  the  settlement  before  him  of 
several  thousand  bankrupt  cases  during  the  last  few  years, 
some  involving  millions  of  dollars  and  the  rights  of  hun- 
dreds of  creditors,  demanded  a  strength  of  body  herculean, 
and  of  mind  adequate  to  every  exigency.  As  an  inter- 
preter of  the  bankrupt  law  he  became  an  authority.  He 
placed  no  limit  to  his  labors  either  in  mastering  the  law  or 
in  arriving  at  an  equitable  settlement  among  conflicting 
creditors  of  bankrupt  estates.  Here  was  the  weight  that 
broke  him  down.     He  undoubtedly  bestowed  more  labor 


NATHAN    K.    HALL.  273 

on  his  cases  than  duty  required.  He  did  not  know  how 
to  work  easily,  he  only  knew  to  do  the  utmost  that  could 
be  done,  to  exhaust  every  subject  presented  to  his  review, 
to  sift  to  the  bottom  every  complication  of  facts,  and  to 
leave  a  case  submitted  only  when  he  had  mastered  it  to 
the  last  detail.  He  was  always  in  harness,  and  scarce 
knew  what  recreation  was. 

Very  few  of  Judge  Hall's  decisions  were  finally  reversed. 
The  only  criticism  I  ever  heard  made  upon  his  method  in 
the  trial  of  cases  before  him,  was  to  the  effect  that  in 
taking  testimony  and  weighing  it,  he  failed  to  duly  dis- 
criminate between  honest  and  dishonest  witnesses.  It 
was  accompanied  by  this  explanation,  that  the  judge  was 
so  honest  himself  that  he  did  not  readily  suspect  dishon- 
esty in  others.  However  this  may  have  been,  the  fact 
that  on  review  his  decisions  were  so  generally  sustained, 
is  sufficient  proof  that  suitors  went  out  of  his  court  with 
substantial  justice  so  far  as  he  was  called  to  administer  it. 

I  do  not  know  how  I  can  better  supplement  what  I 
have  said,  than  by  quoting  some  of  the  expressions  made 
before  Judge  Blatchford's  court,  in  the  southern  district, 
as  I  find  them  reported  in  the  New  York  papers.  Hon. 
E.  W.  Stoughton,  the  eminent  counselor  of  New  York, 
the  day  after  Judge  Hall's  decease,  moved  the  adjourn- 
ment of  the  court  out  of  respect  of  his  memory,  and  in 
the  course  of  his  address  said  as  follows : 


Judge  Hall  entered  upon  the  discharge  of  his  duties  with  a 
high  sense  of  sacred  obligation  imposed  upon  him.  He  has 
often  presided  in  this  district,  both  in  the  Circuit  and  District 
Courts.  During  almost  his  entire  judicial  life  it  has  been  my 
good  fortune  to  know  him  well  and  to  enjoy,  as  I  believe,  his 
confidence  and  friendship.  I  have  been  often  before  him  in 
the  trial  and  argument  of  cases,  some  of  which  were  of  great 


274  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

length  and  difficulty.  His  efforts  to  tlioroughly  understand  the 
most  complicated  were  ever  persistent  and  laborious.  He 
rarely  conceived  and  rarely  expressed  at  an  early  stage  of  any 
cause  impressions  for  or  against  either  side.  He  was  slow  to 
arrive  at  conclusions,  and  seldom  did  so  until  he  had  most 
carefully  investigated  and  deliberated  upon  the  (juestions  to  be 
determined.  His  love  of  justice,  his  desire  to  do  justice, 
impelled  him  oftentimes  to  the  performance  of  judicial  labor 
of  the  most  painful  and  minute  character,  and  he  brought  to 
his  aid  in  this,  stores  of  exact  legal  learning,  the  accumulations 
of  many  well-sjient  years.  He  heard  counsel  with  patience, 
and  ever  treated  them  with  courtesy  and  kindness.  His 
judicial  life  has  been  pure  and  spotless,  and  to  his  labors  and 
his  example  the  Bar,  the  public  and  even  the  Bench  are  greatly 
indebted.  A  more  satisfactory  life  to  him,  one  which  could 
more  completely  gratify  the  pride  and  the  honest  ambition  of 
the  widow  and  descendants  who  mourn  his  loss,  cannot  well  be 
imagined.  He  had  occupied  high  places  in  the  State  and  on 
the  Bench,  without  having  sought  or  secured  them  by  unworthy 
means,  and  he  has  ever  so  discharged  his  high  and  responsible 
trusts  as  to  merit  the  approval  and  the  applause  of  the  best 
among  his  fellow-men.  He  was  a  worthy  associate  upon  the 
bench  of  that  great  judge  whose  loss  we  still  sincerely  mourn 
(Nelson),  and  whom,  after  a  few  months  of  separation,  he  has 
gone  from  us  to  join. 

If  Judge  Hall  does  not  rank  among  the  few  great 
judges  who  have  established  the  principles  of  law  and 
equity  as  applicable  to  trade  and  commerce,  or  who  have 
interpreted  the  fundamental  law  and  defined  the  limita- 
tions of  State  and  Federal  authority,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  of  his  place  in  our  judicial  history  as  one  of  the 
most  upright,  laborious  and  adequate  judges  that  have 
ever  honored  the  American  Bench. 

One  characteristic  of  Judge  Hall  in  times  of  popular 
excitement  provoked  some  criticism.  He  had  as  profound 
a  reverence  for  law  and  constitutional  right  and  authority 


NATHAN    K.    HALL.  275 

as  it  is  possible  for  man  to  pay  them.  Living  law  to  him 
was  the  highest  representative  of  the  divine  on  earth. 
And  whether  in  peace  or  war,  whether  it  involved  the 
rights  of  persons  or  the  government,  it  was  to  be  enforced 
without  fear  or  favor.  "  Sa/iis  Icgis  siiprcma  lex'' 
appeared  to  him  the  safer  maxim  than  the  ^^  saliis  popnlH' 
He  saw  no  safety  for  the  citizen  in  irresponsible  authority. 
His  judgment  might  have  been  always  right,  or  sometimes 
wrong,  in  his  vindication  of  the  inviolability  of  the  law. 
But  one  thing  is  certain,  that  for  the  rights  of  persons  as 
maintained  to-day  in  England  and  in  our  own  country, 
we  are  indebted  to  judges  of  the  stamp  of  Judge  Hall. 
Men  who  could  go  to  the  tower  or  the  block  with  heart 
and  cheek  unblenched,  but  who  would  not  deny  the  pro- 
tection of  the  law  to  the  poorest  subject,  the  humblest 
citizen,  against  commons  or  kings.  Judicial  independence, 
under  the  sanctions  of  an  honest  nature,  a  democracy 
cannot  afford  to  undervalue,  and  this  element,  so  needful 
for  the  protection  of  the  citizen  in  times  of  civil  commo- 
tion and  alarm,  was  pre-eminent  in  Judge  Hall.  Herein 
was  the  moral  grandeur  of  his  character.  Underneath 
that  modest  mien  and  unaffected  simplicity,  was  this 
latent  element  of  power  which,  on  occasion,  could  rise  to 
the  sublime  of  judicial  assertion.  Without  this  quality  a 
man  may  be  a  learned  judge  but,  in  the  highest  sense, 
he  cannot  be  a  great  one. 

Judge  Hall  had  a  short  legislative  career,  having  been 
elected  a  member  of  assembly  in  November,  1845,  '^^'^^  ^ 
member  of  congress  in  1846.  He  declined  a  re-election 
to  congress.  He  took  high  rank  in  both  bodies  as  a 
capable  and  useful  legislator.  He  was  distinguished  for 
his  intelligent  labor  in  committee,  and  for  his  attention  to 
the  general  business  before  the  house.  At  the  close  of 
his  congressional  term  he  returned  to  his  profession  from 


2/6  ADDRESSES    AND    MISCELLANIES. 

wliich  he  was  called  to  yet  more  responsible  relations  in 
the  government. 

The  death  of  General  Taylor  brought  Mr.  Fillmore  to 
the  presidential  office,  and  in  forming  his  cabinet  he 
called  Judge  Hall  to  the  office  of  postmaster-general. 
He  was  fully  in  sympathy  with  the  president  upon  all  the 
great  questions  and  measures  of  the  time,  but  his  own 
immediate  responsibility  began  and  ended  with  his  own 
department.  He  held  the  office  of  postmaster-general 
from  July  3,  1850,  to  September  13,  1852,  and  in  Septem- 
ber, 1851,  was  for  a  short  time  acting  secretary  of  the 
interior.  To  his  cabinet  office  he  brought  the  same  zeal, 
energy,  judgment  and  fidelity  which  had  distinguished 
his  professional  and  official  life.  As  a  cabinet  officer  he 
took  high  rank  and  was  especially  valued  by  his  colleague, 
Mr.  Webster.  There  are  two  classes  of  statesmen  ;  the 
one  represents  the  doctrinaire  and  innovator,  who  is 
sometimes  Utopian  and  sometimes  wisely  in  advance  of 
his  time.  Another  class  has  little  sympathy  with  experi- 
ments, and  prefers  to  stand  by  the  established  order  so 
long  as  it  seems  to  work  substantial  justice.  Judge  Hall 
was  a  representative  of  the  latter  class.  He  was  no  doc- 
trinaire, and  he  was  slow  to  accept  new  theories  until  his 
judgment  told  him  it  was  time  for  the  old  to  die ;  he  was 
a  conservative  statesman,  and  gave  to  that  school  his 
cordial,  because  his  honest,  co-operation. 

The  bare  enumeration  of  his  official  trusts  shows  how 
absolutely  he  was  the  servant  of  the  public.  Many  of 
them  in  the  earlier  part  of  his  career  were  humble  offices, 
sought,  undoubtedly,  for  the  aid  they  would  give  him  in 
his  struggles,  but  the  duties  of  each  and  all  were  as  faith- 
fully discharged  as  were  those  of  the  highest  dignity  and 
responsibility.  It  was  this  proved  adequacy  and  tried 
fidelity  that  secured  him  the  most  absolute  public  confi- 


NATHAN    K,    HALL.  2/7 

deuce,  and  made  easy  and  natural  his  advancement  to  the 
highest  trusts  under  the  government.  And  it  was  well 
said  at  the  meeting  of  the  Bar  that  this  was  the  crucial 
test,  and  that  his  character  had  come  out  of  it  as  solid 
gold.  His  integrity  was  almost  of  a  romantic  type — no 
importunity  of  friendship,  no  precedents  of  favoritism 
could  ever  bend  him  from  the  most  inflexible  observance 
of  his  rule  of  duty.  This  was  illustrated  when  he  was 
postmaster-general,  in  his  award  of  contracts  for  printing 
and  mail  services,  when  he  never  knew  any  difference 
between  friends  and  foes  and  had  no  eyes  for  anything 
but  the  most  advantageous  offers  for  the  government. 

The  many  offices  held  by  Judge  Hall  having  more  or 
less  emolument,  never  enriched  him,  while  the  greater 
portion  of  his  official  life,  and  that  from  which  the  public 
reaped  the  largest  advantage,  was,  measured  by  the  value 
and  amount  of  services  rendered,  pecuniarily  unrecom- 
pensed.  His  judgeship  did  not  yield  a  support,  to  say 
nothing  of  its  dignity,  which  is  something  so  long  as  a 
worthy  man  holds  the  office. 

But  Judge  Hall  did  his  full  share  of  service  in  founding 
and  maintaining  those  institutions  of  education  and 
charity  which  are  the  best  exponents  of  our  social  spirit. 
As  early  as  1837,  when  in  the  city  common  council,  he 
was  chairman  of  the  school  committee,  and  in  connection 
with  O.  G.  Steele,  Esq.,  then  superintendent  of  schools, 
prepared  the  bill  which  revolutionized  the  former  system 
and  prepared  the  way  for  the  present  system  of  our 
public  schools.  He  was  for  many  years  president  of  the 
Buffalo  Female  Academy,  and  was  at  the  time  of  his 
death  one  of  the  trustees  of  the  Wells  Seminary  at 
Aurora,  Cayuga  county.  He  was  also  president  of  the 
Board  of  Trustees  of  the  State  Normal  School  in  Buffalo. 
He  was  one  of  the  trustees  of  the  Ketchum    Memorial 


278  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIKS. 

Fund.  He  was  one  of  tlie  founders  and  presidents  of 
this  society,  in  which  he  always  took  a  deep  interest.  In 
short,  he  lived  and  died  in  the  public  service,  shrinking 
from  no  labor  imposed,  discharging  every  duty  as  a  citizen 
with  scrupulous  fidelity  ant!   honor. 

In  every  private  and  domestic  relation  his  life  was 
beautiful.  His  autobiography  has  an  almost  religious 
tone  of  gratitude  to  his  father's  house,  and  to  the  early 
home  that  gave  his  childhood  protection  and  love.  He 
was  a  fond  kinsman,  and  a  wide  circle  dwelt  in  the  sun- 
shine of  his  considerate  and  sacrificing  nature.  He  prac- 
ticed a  liberal  and  unostentatious  charity.  He  realized 
the  ideal  man  of  the  Arabian  poet : 

He  delivered  the  poor  that  cried,  and  the  fatherless  and  him 
that  had  none  to  help  him.  He  put  on  righteousness  and  it 
clothed  him,  and  his  judgment  was  a  robe  and  a  diadem. 

He  reverentially  recognized  the  moral  Providence  of 
the  world.  He  had  a  pure  heart,  which  is  the  vision 
of  God.  His  worship  was  neither  a  ceremony  nor  an 
asceticism.  His  organization  required  other  methods  of 
expression  than  these.  In  this  connection  I  shall  take 
the  liberty  to  quote  a  single  paragraph  from  his  auto- 
biography, sacredly  personal  as  is  its  character : 

That  much  of  my  success  has  been  due  to  my  own  efforts,  I 
feel  bound  to  say  in  encouragement  of  those  who  shall  come 
after  me,  while  I  admit  with  thankfulness  and  gratitude  that 
much  more  has  been  due  to  the  kindness  of  the  Universal 
Father  who  "cast  my  lines  in  pleasant  places,"  and  in  the 
course  of  His  benignant  providence  afforded  me  abundant  and 
yet  repeated  opportunities  to  put  to  profitable  and  honorable 
use  the  talents  He  had  given  me. 

But  what  can  I  say  of  Judge  Hall  as  a  man,  which  has 
not  already  been  expressed  in  every  form  of  tribute  which 


NATHAN   K.    HALL.  2/9 

a  public  can  pay  to  one  it  honors  and  reveres.  Words 
almost  fail  us  when  we  enter  the  domain  of  his  private 
life  and  contemplate  his  character  as  it  unfolded  in  the 
relations  of  friendship  and  home.  He  might  have 
appeared  stern  and  severe  to  those  who  knew  him  not, 
but  to  those  who  sought  him  he  was  sweet  as  summer. 
Who  ever  saw  him  ruffled,  except  in  presence  of  some 
cruelty  or  wrong?  What  a  benediction  was  in  that 
friendly,  beaming  face  !  Living  without  ostentation  or 
display,  yet  with  tasteful  comfort,  he  was  a  princely  host. 
"  This  house  is  yours,"  says  the  courteous  Castilian  ; 
"  this  house  is  yours,"  you  read  in  our  friend's  greeting 
and  hospitality.  He  was  born  for  friendship,  and  he 
abounded  in  those  little  offices  of  kindness  which  are 
among  the  sweetest  solaces  of  life.  He  made  our  bur- 
dens lighter  by  his  love,  and  we  went  out  from  his 
presence  with  fresh  courage  and  renewed  strength  for 
life's  weary  march. 

He  had  a  large  nature,  full  of  truth,  loyalty  and  honor. 
His  word  had  the  sanctity  of  religion,  it  was  a  pillar  of 
constancy.  His  public  career  was  pure  as  his  private  life. 
All  the  elective  offices  he  ever  held  were  bestowed,  not 
purchased.  If  modern  politics  are  in  the  least  degener- 
ated he  did  nothing  to  degrade  them.  He  never  offered 
bribes,  he  never  debauched  a  constituency.  He  never 
solicited  office  with  votes  in  one  hand  and  money  in  the 
other.  He  was  fond  of  place,  but  no  ambition  ever  led 
him  to  sacrifice  his  manhood.  He  never  dragged  his 
robes  in  the  mire  or  sullied  those  of  other  men.  He  was 
ever  pure,  self-respecting.  He  was  no  flatterer  of  the 
people — he  had  no  arts,  no  strategy — his  capital  was  his 
character.  He  was  a  gentleman  of  the  old-time  school,  a 
type  of  a  class  rapidly  passing  away.  Science  teaches  us 
that  the  different  geological  periods  have  furnished,  each, 


280  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

distinct  formations  and  species  of  vegetable  and  animal 
life,  the  new  ever  superseding  the  old.  Our  modern 
society  seems  to  have  a  somewhat  analogous  experience. 
This  period  of  unrest,  of  concentration  of  capital  and 
energy  in  great  centers  of  population,  of  material  devel- 
opment and  the  new  paths  it  opens  for  personal  dis- 
tinction, will  give  us  types  of  commanding  energy  and 
force,  but  without  the  calm,  the  dignity  and  silent  power 
of  the  old  school. 

Judge  Hall  married  on  the  sixteenth  day  of  November, 
1832,  Miss  Emily  Paine,  of  Aurora.  Five  children  were 
born  to  him,  of  whom  but  one  survives — Mrs.  Josiah 
Jewett  of  this  city. 

For  several  years  previous  to  his  death  his  constitution 
gave  repeated  signs  of  giving  way  before  the  severe 
labors  of  his  office.  On  the  week  previous  to  his  death 
he  had  been  in  daily  attendance  upon  his  official  duties. 
On  Sunday,  March  first,  he  did  not  feel  as  well  as  usual 
and  kept  his  bed.  I  saw  him  at  seven  o'clock  in  the 
evening,  when  he  was  cheerful  and  hopeful,  with  no 
appearance  of  extreme  illness.  He  fell  asleep  at  the 
usual  hour,  and  about  four  o'clock  in  the  morning,  after 
a  slight  spasm,  he  died.  And  so  he  passed  forever  from 
the  scenes  of  time. 


JOHN   C.    LORD,    D,  D.  28l 


JOHN    C.    LORD,    D.  D. 

A  Memorial  Paper  rkad  before  the  Buffalo  Historical 
Society,  April  2,  1S77. 


The  Historical  Society  devotes  the  hour  to  reminis- 
cence and  study  of  the  h'fe,  character  and  career  of  the 
late  Rev.  Dr.  John  C.  Lord  : 

He  was  born  in  Washington,  New  Hampshire,  on  the 
ninth  of  August,  1805,  ^"d  was  the  son  of  Rev.  John 
Lord  and  Sarah  Chase,  who  was  the  cousin  of  the  late 
Chief  Justice  Salmon  P.  Chase.  At  the  age  of  twelve 
years  he  entered  Plainfield  Academy,  in  his  native  State. 
He  subsequently  entered  Madison  Academy,  and  after- 
wards Hamilton  College  of  New  York,  where  he  remained 
two  years.  He  graduated  in  the  same  class  with  our 
distinguished  fellow-townsmen,  Judge  Clinton  and  the 
late  Dr.  Thomas  M.  Foote.  After  two  years'  editorial 
experience  in  Canada,  he  came  to  Buffalo  in  1825,  enter- 
ing the  office  of  Love  &  Tracy,  then  the  leading  law^  firm 
in  Western  New  York.  He  taught  a  select  school  for  a 
few  months,  having  Orsamus  H.  Marshall,  Esq.,  and  Dr. 
James  P.  White,  as  pupils.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar 
in  1828.  In  the  latter  part  of  that  year  he  was  married 
to  Miss  Mary  Johnson,  daughter  of  the  late  Dr.  Ebenezer 
Johnson,  the  first  mayor  of  Buffalo,  and  one  of  its  leading 
citizens.  That  marriage  had  its  specially  romantic  inci- 
dent, which  survives  a  pleasant  tradition  of  the  time.  In 
the  same  year  he  formed  a  partnership  with  Judge  Love, 
19 


282  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

wliicli  continued  about  two  }-cars.  During  those  years 
he  held  several  civil  and  military  commissions,  the  prizes 
offered  to  the  enterprise  and  talent  of  young  professional 
aspirants. 

He  brought  to  his  profession  talent,  health  and  ambi- 
tion. He  had  also,  in  an  extraordinary  degree,  a  faculty 
for  accumulation,  and  a  stimulating  love  of  property.  He 
had  the  forecast  and  the  pluck,  which,  with  opportunity, 
lead  to  fortune.  There  seemed  no  element  wanting  to 
assure  him  the  largest  success  in  his  chosen  profession. 

Yet,  in  the  midst  of  his  early  triumphs,  to  the  surprise 
of  all  who  had  watched  his  auspicious  beginning,  he  heard 
the  voice  which  arrested  Paul  on  that  journey  to  Damas- 
cus, and  obeyed  it.  From  that  hour  he  turned  his  back 
on  all  the  allurements  of  a  worldly  ambition,  for  the  labors 
and  sacrifices  of  the  ministerial  office.  This  act,  which 
shaped  all  his  long  public  career,  reveals,  as  nothing  else 
could  do,  the  ardor  of  his  nature,  the  depth  of  his  convic- 
tions, and  the  fountain  springs  of  his  character. 

After  uniting  with  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  this 
city,  he  entered  the  Auburn  Theological  Seminary  in  1830, 
from  which  he  graduated  in  1833. 

He  was  soon  called  to  Geneseo,  and  for  two  years  was 
pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  that  village.  During 
that  time  occurred  in  his  church,  and  in  the  community, 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  revivals  in  the  history  of 
Western  New  York.  The  Doctor  often  referred  to  that 
movement  as  one  of  the  most  interesting  with  which 
he  had  ever  been  associated.  In  November,  1825,  his 
mother-church,  "  the  Old  First,"  had  reached  a  stage  of 
growth  when  colonization  became  a  necessity,  and  she 
planted  the  first  of  those  more  recent  churches  which 
represent  the  Presbyterian  interest  in  Buffalo. 


JOHN   C.    LORD,    D.  D.  283 

The  Pearl  Street  Cliurch  was  organized  in  1835,  wor- 
shiping at  first  in  a  temporary  building.  Dr.  Lord,  the 
favorite  son  of  the  First  Church,  was  called  to  the  pastorate 
of  the  new  enterprise.  In  1836  was  erected  a  beautiful 
church  edifice,  which  from  its  peculiar  interior  construc- 
tion was  familiarly  called  "the  goose  egg."  I  have  seen 
grander  churches  at  home  and  abroad,  but  St.  Peter's  in 
Rome  hardly  made  a  stronger  impression  on  my  mind  in 
my  mature  years,  than  did  that  unique  Pearl  Street  Church 
on  my  youthful  fancy. 

I  attended  its  Sabbath  service  in  the  fall  of  1836  or 
1837,  on  the  occasion  of  a  chance  visit  to  Buffalo.  It 
was  without  galleries,  its  audience-room  of  oval  form,  the 
pulpit  at  the  street  end,  and  the  orchestra  at  the  rear.  A 
full  band,  at  least  to  my  fancy  it  was  full,  furnished  the 
instrumental  music.  The  blare  of  trumpets,  and  the 
harp,  and  the  sackbut,  and  the  viol,  seemed  to  realize  the 
musical  glories  of  the  old  temple  service.  1  had  never 
before  heard  any  instrument  in  worship  of  more  cunning 
workmanship  than  the  wooden  pitch-pipe  and  the  steel 
tuning-fork,  which  were  accustomed  to  launch  "  Mear " 
and  "  Dundee,"  "  China  "  and  "  Silver  Street,"  and  kindred 
melodies,  upon  the  air  of  my  native  village  church.  That 
orchestral  magnificence  still  haunts  my  imagination. 

Such  were  the  beginnings  of  Dr.  Lord's  Buffalo  career. 
In  the  course  of  a  few  years  the  needs  of  his  congregation 
demanded  a  large  edifice,  and  the  present  magnificent 
church  in  whose  parlors  we  are  now  assembled,  was  built, 
and  the  society  reorganized  under  the  name  of  the  Central 
Presbyterian  Church  of  Buffalo.  And  here,  from  about 
1850  until  his  final  retirement  from  the  pulpit  and  the  dis- 
solution of  the  pastoral  tie.  Dr.  Lord  ministered  in  season 
and  out  of  season  to  his  people.  Here  were  delivered 
those  great  sermons  and  orations  which  placed  him  in  the 


284  ADDUKSSKS    AN'D    M  ISCKLLANI  KS. 

front  rank  of  American  i)ulpil  orators.  lie  niadt;  this 
church  ccHficc,  1)\'  his  hibors  and  sacrifices,  1)\'  his  intel- 
lectual force  and  the  power  of  his  <^enius,  monumental. 

The  life  of  an  able  man  is  revealed  by  his  opinions,  his 
adx'ocacy  of  them,  and  his  character.  And  in  the  case  of 
Dr.  Lord  it  is  pre-eminently  true  that  these  constitute,  in 
a  large  degree,  his  personality,  and  to  them  we  must  direct 
our  studies  for  a  just  appreciation  of  him.  If  in  my  brief 
sketch  I  shall  draw  on  him  for  illustration,  I  do  so  because 
they  are  better  than  any  I  can  offer,  and  because  we  are 
met  here,  by  the  altars  where  he  ministered,  to  commune 
with  his  spirit,  and  to  catch  a  fresh  inspiration  from  his 
thought  and  life. 

Dr.  Lord  was  for  many  years  a  large  part  of  the  intel- 
lectual, the  moral,  and,  in  its  best  sense,  the  political  his- 
tory of  Buffalo.  During  the  middle  period  of  his  life  there 
was  not  a  question  in  Church  or  State  of  general  public 
interest  in  which  he  was  not  a  leader  of  opinion  on  one 
side  or  the  other. 

In  some  respects  he  was  a  man  of  the  past,  rather  than 
the  present.  His  intellectual  and  theological  sj^mpathies 
were  molded  by  the  earlier  time  and  in  the  severe  school 
of  the  fathers  rather  than  by  the  advanced  opinion  of 
later  thinkers  and  actors.  Both  by  mental  organization 
and  training  he  preferred  the  old  ways  to  the  new,  and 
for  primal  truths  would  seek  what  he  regarded  the  golden 
morn  of  time,  rather  than  our  meridian  whose  brightness 
he  would  not  always  take  for  light.  Some  of  the  grand- 
est intellectual  displays  ever  witnessed  among  us  were  his 
pulpit  and  platform  defenses  of  the  old  philosophy,  the 
old  theology,  the  old  economies  of  Church  and  State. 
There  are  yet  some  who  remember  those  occasions  when 
he  delivered  his  popular  addresses,  kindling  with  his  own 
zeal  the  thousands  who  were  under  the  spell  of  his  mag- 


JOHN   C.    LORD,    D.  D.  285 

nctic  eloquence  and  thought.  There  were  some  seeming 
contradictions  in  his  positions  at  different  times  on  some 
questions;  but  they  were  only  seeming.  His  life  of  opin- 
ions was  a  harmony.  Even  his  Higher  Law  sermon,  the 
boldest  expression  of  his  life,  and  the  most  defiant  of  the 
general  sentiment  on  the  question  of  slavery  and  on  the 
relations  of  human  government  to  the  people  and  to 
God,  was  perfectly  consistent  with  his  later  position  after 
slavery  had  thrown  the  gage  of  battle  at  the  feet  of  the 
nation. 

These  characteristics,  and  the  fact  that  he  was  a  polemic 
actor  as  well  as  a  closet  student,  must  be  borne  in  mind 
for  any  correct  appreciation  of  his  public  life.  In  theology 
he  was  a  Calvinist.  Had  he  been  nurtured  by  St.  Augus- 
tine, and  trained  by  the  great  Genevan,  he  could  not  have 
been  a  more  earnest  champion  of  the  doctrines,  in  all  their 
length  and  breadth,  and  in  their  widest  applications,  to 
which  they  have  given  name.  If  we  consider  the  tenden- 
cies of  thought,  both  in  Europe  and  America,  at  the  time 
Dr.  Lord  entered  upon  the  ministry,  and  remember  the 
semi-revolutionary  attitude  of  leaders  abroad  and  at  home 
on  social  and  religious  questions,  we  shall  not  fail  to  see 
that,  positive  and  controversial  as  was  the  character  of 
his  mind,  he  must  adopt  affirmative  opinions  on  the  whole 
range  of  questions  agitating  the  public  mind,  and  maintain 
them  with  a  zeal  allied  to  passion.  About  contemporary 
with  his  entry  upon  the  ministry,  the  European  wave  of 
German  philosophy  and  transcendental  mysticism,  which 
had  done  so  much  to  disturb  the  old  systems  of  belief  in 
German}',  and  after  their  introduction  by  Carlyle,  in  Eng- 
land, struck  the  New  England  coast,  and  their  influence 
was  soon  felt  in  all  schools  of  religious  thought.  It  was 
at  the  period  of  the  Doctor's  settlement  here  in  his  new 
profession  that  Emerson  was  introducing  the  followers  of 


286  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

Chaniiini;'  to  those  liberal  fields  where  so  iiiain'  now  find 
l)asturaLje  in  the  oriental  doctiine  of  the  Over  Soul.  The 
transcendentalists  were  dreaming  their  dreams  at  Brook 
Farm,  presenting  them  to  the  j)ublic  in  the  most  fasci- 
nating forms  of  modern  culture.  In  the  more  orthodox 
schools,  Bushnell,  Barnes,  Heecher,  Taj-Ior  and  others, 
were  maintaining  their  new  interpretations  of  Scripture 
before  councils  and  assemblies,  some  of  them  passing  that 
once-terrible  ordeal — the  trial  for  heresy. 

Tractarian  Ritualism,  too,  was  at  its  height  in  the 
English  Church,  and  its  mediaeval  spirit  was  startling  the 
staid  Protestantism  of  both  hemispheres.  Superadded 
to  these  disturbing  elements  in  the  theologic  world. 
Science  appeared,  pressing  its  audacious  footstep  in  every 
field  of  legitimate  inquiry,  astonishing  by  its  revelations 
as  to  the  age  and  method  of  creation,  and  filling  the 
minds  of  many  good  men  with  fears  that  they  would  lead 
the  world  to  the  sty  of  Epicurus  and  the  negations  of 
Atheism. 

At  the  same  period,  another  wave,  humanitarian  rather 
than  religious,  came  rolling  in  upon  us  from  England,  a 
wave  first  evoked  by  the  spells  of  Sharp  and  Wilberforce, 
and  Clarkson,  and  which,  after  a  struggle  of  forty  weary 
years,  in  defiance  of  the  hostility  of  the  Established 
Church  and  the  English  aristocracy,  had  abolished  the 
African  slave  trade,  abolished  slavery  in  the  British 
colonies,  and  threatened  to  overthrow,  in  methods  wholly 
revolutionary,  our  own  peculiar  institution,  which  had 
grown  up  under,  and  was  protected  by,  our  federal  con- 
stitution and  laws.  In  short,  the  time  of  his  settlement 
here  in  the  ministry  was  one  of  extraordinary  ferment, 
of  intellectual  audacity,  of  social  experiment  and  of 
revolutionary  tendencies  in  Church  and  State. 


JOHN   C.    LORl"    I).  D.  287 

Doctor  Lord's  zeal  for  the  old  theology,  and  his  atti- 
tude on  the  slavery  question,  were  greatly  stimulated  to 
aggressive  action  by  the  new  movements.  The  sover- 
eignty of  law  as  the  representative  of  a  sovereign  God, 
and  human  society  as  a  special  organization  by  the  divine 
economy,  were  with  him  central  truths,  the  only  founda- 
tions of  a  true  social  philosophy,  or  of  just  systems  of 
law  and  government  for  men.  And  on  the  threshold  of 
these  revolutionary  movements  he  planted  himself  upon 
the  old  doctrines,  a  conservative  of  conservatives,  con- 
tending for  the  old  ideas,  the  old  formulas,  and  the  old 
economies.  After  the  disruption  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  1837,  there  was  but  one  ultimate  choice 
possible  for  him.  He  must  go  with  the  conservatives. 
To  the  adherents  of  either  party  who  saw  below  the  sur- 
face, and  felt  the  ground-swell  of  the  revolution,  "  Old 
School  "  and  "  New  School "  represented  antagonisms 
which  survived  during  the  slavery  discussion,  and  until 
both  bodies  were  liberalized  by  a  new  generation. 

His  ideas  of  the  State,  and  its  relations  to  the  citizen, 
revealed  the  harmony  between  Dr.  Lord  the  publicist, 
and  Doctor  Lord  the  theologian.  This  harmony  is  clearly 
brought  to  view  in  his  celebrated  Thanksgiving  sermon 
in  1850,  "  On  the  Higher  Law  as  applicable  to  the  Fugi- 
tive Slave  Bill."  His  theological  system  declaring  the 
divine  institution  of  human  governments  and  the  sover- 
eignty of  human  law  as  the  reflex  of  divine  law,  furnishes 
the  basal  principle  of  that  sermon.  There  was  much  in 
the  angry  controversy  at  the  time,  much  in  the  peril 
many  men  believed  to  be  menacing  the  stability  of  the 
government,  which  gave  point  to  the  discourse,  but  its 
logic  flowed  from  the  principle  I  have  stated. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Mr.  Seward,  in  a  speech  in 
the  senate  resisting  the  fugitive  slave  law,  had  avowed 


288  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

the  liiL;hcr-l;iw  doctrine.  "There  is  a  hij^her  law  than 
the  constitution"  was  his  forniula.  In  a  period  of  cahii 
tliere  was  nothini^  in  tliis  dcchiration  whicli  had  been 
starthng.  It  was  not  novel ;  it  was  old  as  human 
thought.  It  was  uttered  by  Cicero  in  language  whose 
feeblest  translation  is  as  full  of  beauty  as  it  is  of  truth. 
"There  is,"  he  says,  "a  law  which  is  not  one  thing  at 
Rome,  another  at  Athens,  one  thing  to-day  and  another 
to-morrow,  but  one  and  the  same,  eternal  and  immutable 
among  all  nations,  and  in  all  time."  Sophocles,  of  the 
Greeks,  had  said  in  one  of  his  tragedies  by  a  character 
defying  legitimate  but  unjust  authority: 

Nor  of  such  force  thy  edicts  did  I  deem, 
That,  mortal  as  thou  art,  thou  hast  the  power 
To  overthrow  the  firm  unwritten  laws 
Of  the  just  gods.     These  are  not  of  to-day 
Or  yesterday,  but  through  all  ages  live. 

It  has  been  accepted  by  moral  philosophers  of  all  times. 
The  sentiment,  properly  interpreted,  is  written  on  the 
universal  heart  of  man.  It  is  the  instinct  of  the  human 
conscience.  But  thrown  out  by  our  great  senator  as 
apparent  justification  of  disobedience  to  a  statute,  obedi- 
ence to  which  seemed  to  be  the  condition  of  national 
peace,  it  is  not  surprising  that  it  should  have  provoked 
alarm.  He  maintained  in  that  sermon  the  divine  char- 
acter of  government  and  the  duty  of  the  citizen  because 
it  was  divine,  to  obey  the  laws.  He  laid  down  this 
formula  :  "  The  action  of  the  civil  governments,  within 
their  appropriate  jurisdiction,  is  final  and  conclusive  upon 
the  citizen."  This  theory  of  entire  subjection  to  existing 
civil  authority  he  claimed  to  find  in  the  doctrines  of  the 
New  Testament,  and  in  the  example  and  practice  of  the 
primitive  Christians.  His  sermon  throughout  maintained 
his    favorite    theory  that  Christianity  did   not  come  into 


JOHN   C.    LORD,    D.  D.  289 

the  world  a  force  directly  addressed  to  governments  or  to 
society.  The  general  doctrines  of  the  sermon  never  had 
more  brilliant  advocacy.  It  was  universally  accepted  as 
the  ablest  exposition  of  the  conservative  view  of  the  rela- 
tions of  the  citizen  to  the  government  which  appeared 
from  the  pulpit  of  the  time.  It  gave  him  a  national 
reputation.  By  the  one  side  he  was  accepted  as  a 
prophet,  by  the  other  as  an  apostate  from  the  principles 
of  liberty.  In  a  speech  by  Mr.  Webster,  at  Syracuse,  in 
185 1,  defending  his  own  seventh  of  March  speech  in  the 
senate,  he  said  :  "  They  denounce  me  as  a  fit  associate  of 
Benedict  Arnold  and  Professor  Stuart  and  Dr.  Lord.  I 
would  be  glad  to  strike  out  Benedict  Arnold :  as  for  the 
rest  I  am  proud  of  their  company."  It  was  only  after  the 
storm  of  1850  had  culminated  in  civil  war,  resulting  in 
the  overthrow  of  the  power  which  raised  the  controversy, 
that  the  bitterness  of  the  contest  subsided  and  all  parties 
began  to  act  harmoniously  in  the  new  era  of  homogene- 
ous institutions.  We  now  begin  to  do  justice  to  the 
great  actors  in  that  drama.  Calumny  and  detraction  on 
the  one  side  and  excessive  adulation  on  the  other,  were 
equally  offensive  to  Truth,  who  serenely  awaits  the  final 
judgment  of  history.  The  last  year  has  seen  erected  in 
the  metropolis  of  our  State  memorial  statues  of  the  two 
foremost  leaders  on  either  side,  and  the  American  people 
have  united  in  placing  the  unfading  laurel  on  the  brows 
of  Webster  and  Seward. 

Another  position  of  the  Higher  Law  sermon,  provoking, 
if  possible,  still  sharper  criticism,  was  its  defense  of  the 
relation  of  slavery  because  approved  by  the  political  sys- 
tem of  Moses.  To  this  the  time  had  its  answer.  It  was 
denied  that  American  slavery  in  the  nineteenth  century 
could  be  justified  by  the  civil  code  of  semi-savage  tribes, 
recently  emerged  from  a  condition  of  foreign   subjugation 


290  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

and  slaver)',  who  had  never  risen  above  the  lex  talioiiis 
for  private  wrongs,  and  vvlio  punished  witli  death  the 
smallest  departure  from   their  social  and   sumptuary  laws. 

While  he  so  defended  the  purely  le^al  aspects  of  slav- 
ery, neither  in  that  sermon,  nor  in  any  utterances  of  his 
public  or  private  life,  did  he  ever  apologize  for  the 
cruelties  of  the  institution,  or  claim  that  it  \\as  other 
than  a  relic  of  a  barbaric  past. 

No  social  blandishments  could  weaken  his  vision  or 
warp  his  judgment  on  a  question  of  humanit)\  Whether 
he  ever  modified  his  views  upon  the  scriptural  argument, 
I  do  not  know,  but  it  is  a  matter  of  history  that  when 
slavery  laid  its  hand  on  the  Ark  of  the  Union,  Doctor 
Lord's  patriotism  rose  to  the  height  of  the  occasion,  and 
during  the  four  years  of  defensive  war  for  the  government 
there  was  no  voice  in  the  land  of  clearer,  grander  tone 
for  liberty  and  the  Union  than  his.  There  were  no  abler 
discussions  of  the  whole  controversy  involved  in  that 
struggle,  no  more  impassioned  appeals  to  the  patriotism 
of  the  country  than  are  to  be  found  in  his  political  ser- 
mons of  that  time.  Their  spirit  may  be  divined  by  this 
single  sentence  from  a  Thanksgiving  sermon  of  the  war 
period,  which  closes  his  review  of  the  purpose  of  the 
Confederates  to  make  slavery  the  controlling  power  of 
this  continent : 

For  myself,  I  had  rather  the  Ahiiighty  should  sink  the  con- 
tinent in  the  sea,  or  that  the  nation  should  nobly  perish  on  the 
battle-field  for  freedom,  than  submit  to  this  inglorious  result — 
to  the  lamentable  degradation  of  our  national  prostration  at 
the  footstool  of  slavery. 

He  had  but  one  way  of  defending  a  cause  dear  to 
him — with  all  his  might.  He  had  no  reserve,  he  cut 
down  the  bridges  and  burned  the  ships  that  there  could 


JOHN   C.    LORD,    D.  D.  29I 

be  no  retreat  from  the  line  of  action  sanctioned  by  his 
head  and  approved  by  his  heart.  And  in  that  crisis  his 
patriotism  was  a  holy  passion.  How  perfectly  he  was  in 
sympathy  with  the  policy  of  final  emancipation,  is  beauti- 
fully illustrated  by  his  poem  entitled,  "  The  Silent  Sorrow 
of  the  Enfranchised  Slave.  Suggested  by  the  Obsequies 
of  President  Lincoln  in  Buffalo."  It  might  fittingly  close 
this  review  of  a  controversial  incident  in  his  life  which, 
more  than  any  other,  gave  prominence  to  his  career.  Its 
closing  stanzas  are  as  follows  : 

Ah  !  who  can  know  their  untold  agony, 

To  whom  his  death  appears  the  crowning  loss  ? — 

So  the  disciples  feared  on  that  dread  day 

When  the  great  Sufferer  hung  upon  the  Cross. 

The  sable  mother,  as  her  eyes  grow  dim, 
Wails  o'er  her  first-born  by  the  cottage  fire ; 

Freedom,  though  late  for  her  is  all  to  him — 
Must  it,  alas  !  with  that  great  life  expire  ? 

Old  scarred  and  palsied  slaves,  who  from  the  shore 

Of  burning  Afric,  in  their  youth  were  torn. 
Bow  down  in  speechless  misery  before 

The  tale  of  horror  on  the  breezes  borne  ! 

They  know  not  that  the  manner  of  his  death 
Forever  seals  their  chartered  rights  as  men — 

That  in  their  martyr's  last  expiring  breath. 
The  Nation  heard  these  solemn  words  again. 

Two  hundred  years  of  unrequited  toil 

Have  heaped  up  treasures  for  this  day  of  blood, 

And  every  drop  of  slave  gore  on  our  soil 
Demands  another  from  the  sword  of  God. 

While  his  theological  system  led  him  to  the  conserva- 
tive action  we  have  reviewed,  no  man  brought  a  larger 
sympathy  to  oppressed  peoples.  And  while  it  is  true  that 
he  rejected  the  social  contract  theory  of  the  origin  of 
States,  yet  in  the  Higher  Law  sermon  he  distinctly  main- 
tained the  right  of  revolution  for  adequate  cause. 


292  ADDRESSES    AND    MISCELLANIES. 

Mazzini  himself  could  hardl}-  ha\c  hailed  with  more 
enthusiasm  the  revolutions  of  1848  in  Europe.  The 
democratic  spirit  of  that  time  had  no  f,nander  interpreter 
of  its  passion  and  its  hope. 

His  poem  entitled  "  Kin<^rs  and  Thrones  are  Fallin<^," 
was  hailed  on  both  continents  as  an  embodiment  of  the 
spirit  of  the  epoch.  Let  me  recall  to  you  a  few  of  its 
ringing  stanzas : 

Kings  and  thrones  are  falling, 

The  sound  comes  o'er  tlie  sea, 
Deep  unto  deep  is  calling 
To  the  conflict  of  the  free. 
At  the  voices  of  the  Nations,  like  the  roaring  of  a  flood, 
The  sun  is  turned  to  darkness,  the  moon  is  changed  to  blood, 
•vi-  *  vf  *  *  ^ 

The  word  of  power  is  spoken 

In  accents  loud  and  long  ; 
The  iron  chain  is  broken 

From  the  ankles  of  the  strong  ; 
The  blind  and  beaten  giant  is  staggering  up  at  length. 
And  the  pillars  of  his  prison-house  begin  to  feel  his  strength. 
*  *  *  *  *  * 

The  powers  of  earth  are  shaking 

From  the  Danube  to  the  Rhine, 
Old  Germany  is  waking 

Like  a  Cyclop  from  his  wine. 
And  dark  his  brow  with  hatred,  and  red  his  eye  with  wrath, 
While  he  scatters  his  tormentors  like  pigmies  from  his  path. 

King  or  priest  shall  never 

Rebuild  the  broken  wall. 
For  thought  is  freed  forever 
And  truth  is  now  for  all. 
The  startled  nations  hear  a  voice  through  heaven  and  earth 

resound, 
The  everlasting  word  of  God  shall  never  more  be  bound. 

The  revolution  was  crushed,  but  its  spirit  survived  in 
the  popular  heart,  and  to-day  France,  Germany  and  Italy 


JOHN    C.    LORD,    D.  D.  293 

have  entered    upon    their   careers   of   regeneration.     The 
Doctor  was  right,  only  right  too  soon. 

In  the  middle  portion  of  his  ministry  the  Doctor 
delivered  occasional  lectures  on  questions  of  interest. 
In  a  series  before  the  Young  Men's  Association,  he  de- 
veloped his  theory  of  civilization  and  progress.  They 
presented  many  original  views.  He  maintained  that 
civilization  was  the  original  condition  of  man,  so  cutting 
from  the  roots  the  theory  of  development.  Eden  blos- 
somed with  the  highest  intelligence,  and  the  earliest  races 
and  peoples  were  at  the  acme  of  culture.  Civilization 
was  normal,  and  progress  was  toward  barbarism.  This 
view  flowed  out  of  his  theological  system.  Man,  when 
first  created  in  the  image  of  God,  was  at  the  highest 
point  of  culture.  Man's  transgressions  sowed  the  seeds 
of  decadence,  which  in  time  resulted  in  corruption  and 
barbarism.  From  this  condition  peoples  were  rescued  by 
the  restoration  of  individual  man  to  purity  through 
religious  culture. 

In  the  same  series  of  lectures,  and  on  other  occasions, 
he  took  issue  with  the  broad  schools  of  every  name  on 
the  subject  of  a  progressive  Christianity.  There  could 
be  no  new  interpretations  of  Scripture,  no  modifications 
to  meet  new  systems  of  thought,  or  a  progressive  school 
of  social  philosophy. 

The  theory  of  Guizot,  as  developed  in  his  History  of 
Civilization,  that  Christianity  addressed  itself  to  the  indi- 
vidual and  not  to  social  or  political  institutions,  he  main- 
tained with  great  ability.  The  Higher  Law  sermon  was 
largely  a  development  of  that  idea.  I  may  say  that  in 
this  position  Dr.  Lord  had  the  sympathy  of  the  conserva- 
tive school  in  all  Christian  churches.  It  was  one  of  the 
series  of  rocks  on  which  the  Presbyterian  Church  split  in 
1837;  and,  as  the  slavery  controversy  advanced,  the  two 


294  ADDRESSES  AND   MISCELLANIES. 

antaijonistic  systems  of  Christian  philosophy  became  more 
pronounced.  Was  Christianity  a  principle  addressed  to 
the  individual,  or  was  it,  as  well,  a  force  thrown  into  the 
field  of  the  world  to  act  upon  institutions  social  and 
political  ?  If  the  first  hypothesis  were  the  true,  then 
slavery,  and  poor-laws,  and  the  treatment  of  the  criminal 
and  insane,  indeed  all  the  social  questions  which  are  press- 
ing on  us  for  solution  through  law  and  governmental 
policy,  are  outside  the  immediate  action  of  Christian 
principles  and  the  Christian  Church.  If  the  second 
hypothesis  be  the  true,  then  Christianity  is  not  only  a 
power  acting  on  individuals,  but  it  addresses  itself  as  a 
law  to  every  element  of  society  and  to  every  institution 
in  the  State. 

The  advanced  view  of  our  day  is  a  logical  one.  It  was 
a  matter  of  course  that,  as  the  theologic  spirit  declined, 
the  humane  spirit  of  Christianity  should  advance.  And 
the  decline  of  the  theologic  spirit  results  from  the  funda- 
mental idea  of  the  Reformation — the  right  of  private 
interpretation  of  Scripture,  coupled  with  the  development 
of  social  and  political  institutions.  This  progress  is  not 
in  the  principles  of  Christianity,  for  no  philosophy  can  rise 
higher  than  its  headlands,  but  in  the  better  vision  of  our 
time.  I  think  we  must  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
whole  history  of  Christianity  has  been  a  history  of  devel- 
opment, slow  but  necessary,  and  every  step  one  of  provi- 
dential training  of  the  race  from  high  to  higher.  St. 
Simon  Stylites,  of  the  fifth  century,  sitting  on  his  pillar 
sixty  feet  in  the  air  for  thirty  years,  was  the  model  saint 
of  his  period.  The  crusaders  of  the  tenth  and  eleventh 
centuries  were  an  advance  upon  the  ascetic  of  the  desert. 
The  intellectual  activities  of  Luther's  day,  amid  the  per- 
petual   tramp    of    armies    over    Europe,    stimulated    the 


JOHN   C.    LORD,   D.  D.  295 

thought  of  the  age,  and  prepared  the  way  for  a  new  era 
of  institutions. 

The  parable  of  the  good  Samaritan  and  the  doctrine  of 
the  fraternity  of  men  and  the  universal  fatherhood  of  God, 
were  in  the  New  Testament  from  the  beginning,  but  out 
of  the  range  of  human  vision  until  the  time  of  Howard 
and  Wilberforce.  The  horizon  of  one  era  is  the  meridian 
of  another,  and  in  the  procession  of  the  ages  all  his  con- 
stellations will  shed  their  light  on  the  children  of  God. 
Says  George  Fox  in  his  journal :  "  And  I  saw  that  there 
was  an  ocean  of  darkness  and  death  ;  but  an  infinite  ocean 
of  light  and  love  flovved  over  the  ocean  of  darkness,  and 
in  that  I  saw  the  infinite  love  of  God." 

To-day,  after  nearly  eighteen  hundred  years  of  struggle 
for  its  just  position  in  the  world,  the  social  spirit  of  the 
founder  of  Christianity,  as  revealed  in  the  incidents  of  his 
life  and  in  his  parables,  has  come  to  the  front  and  leads 
our  era.  It  is  the  motive  power  of  every  humane  and 
philanthropic  movement.  Even  the  few  philosophers 
who,  like  John  Stuart  Mill  and  Harriet  Martineau,  co- 
operate in  these  modern  movements,  whether  or  not  they 
acknowledge  their  obligation,  find  their  best  inspiration 
in  Jesus.  The  great  service  of  men  who,  like  Dr.  Lord, 
stood  in  the  old  ways  and  acted  as  breakwaters  to  the 
flood  of  new  ideas  was  this,  and  it  cannot  be  overesti- 
mated. They  held  on  the  solid  body  of  doctrine  without 
which  Christianity  degenerates  from  a  religion  to  a  philos- 
ophy, so  preventing  a  precipitate  radical  revolution,  until 
the  new  and  old  ideas  could  adjust  themselves  to  each 
other,  and  act,  as  they  now  do,  in  accord  in  their  mission 
to  man  and  to  society. 

The  central  principle  of  the  life  of  Dr.  Lord  as  it 
flowed  out  to  the  world  through  his  intellect  and  through 
his    heart,    I    believe    is    to   .be    found    in    his    faith    in 


296  ADDRESSHS   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

the  divine.  Deity  was  as  an  atmosplierc  in  uhicli  liis 
spirit  consciously  lived  and  wrought.  Priest  or  prophet 
never  worshiped  with  more  awe  the  uncreated  source  of 
law  and  love.  In  this  connection,  remembering  with  what 
vigor  in  his  best  da}'s  the  Doctor  combatted  the  material- 
istic tendencies  of  certain  schools,  it  is  a  matter  of  interest 
to  know  his  last  thoughts,  and  to  catch  his  dying  testi- 
mony. During  the  session  of  the  Scientific  Association 
in  Buffalo,  in  August  last,  I  found  him  one  day  in  his 
library,  his  mind  occupied  with  the  discussions  of  the 
week.  He  at  once  opened  upon  the  evolution  theory  of 
man.  His  defense  of  his  old-time  views  of  the  existence 
of  God,  of  man  as  created  in  His  image,  and  man's  need 
of  a  religious  faith,  recalled  the  Dr.  Lord  of  twenty  years 
ago.  I  shall  never  forget  these  words,  nor  his  face,  almost 
transfigured,  as  he  uttered  them  :  "  They  cannot  dethrone 
God,  they  cannot  overthrow  His  word,  and  I  laugh  them 
to  scorn,  I  laugh  them  to  scorn." 

His  long  ministry  occurred,  as  we  have  seen,  at  a  transi- 
tion period.  He  could  at  its  close  look  over  the  field  and 
see  that,  after  all  the  upheavals  and  changes  of  the  time, 
the  principles  of  Christianity  were  more  firmly  entrenched 
than  ever  in  the  hearts  of  men.  He  could  well  afford  to 
laugh  at  any  school  who  hoped  to  strike  out  of  human 
consciousness,  faith  and  trust  in  an  Author  and  Ruler  of 
the  world.  So  long  as  man  suffers  and  sorrows,  so  long 
as  the  spiritual  faculty  survives,  so  long  as  the  sentiment 
of  reverence  and  worship,  the  primal  instincts  of  man, 
lead  his  soul  to  the  great  ideals  of  virtue  and  goodness, 
which,  begin  where  they  will,  culminate  in  Deity,  mate- 
rialism will  never  usurp  the  altars  of  religion  in  human 
households. 

Dr.  Lord  was  not  an  exact  scholar,  nor  did  he  make 
pretensions  to  be  such.     He  loved  historic  studies,  but  I 


JOHN   C.    LORD,    I).  D.  297 

do  not  think  he  brought  to  them  the  absolute  judicial  fac- 
ulty, rare,  if  it  ever  exists,  in  earnest  natures.  Because 
of  this  he  was  the  more  powerful  advocate  and  confident 
leader.  His  force  was  never  weakened  by  hesitating  opin- 
ions after  his  position  was  once  taken. 

As  a  preacher  he  attained  great  distinction.  He  had 
repeated  calls  to  several  of  the  strongest  and  most  impor- 
tant churches  of  the  country.  New  York,  Pittsburgh  and 
Mobile  sought  to  win  him  from  Buffalo,  by  inducements 
which  required  a  strong  man  to  resist. 

He  supplied  a  pulpit,  prior  to  1850,  in  Mobile  for  six 
months,  while  he  sought  an  escape  from  the  rigors  of  our 
winter  climate.  There  was  a  time,  about  1848,  when, 
wearied  with  the  loneliness  of  his  position  as  the  pastor 
of  the  only  Old  School  Church  here,  he  was  inclined  to 
accept  the  Pittsburgh  call.  The  Doctor  felt  his  isolation 
keenly.  It  was  not  the  fault  of  persons,  but  was  the 
natural  result  of  the  sharp  controversies  in  which  he  gave 
blows  quite  as  hard  as  he  received.  In  those  days  clergy- 
men of  different  ecclesiastical  relations  had  much  less 
fellowship  with  each  other  than  now.  They  had  not  yet 
discovered,  as  to  some  extent  they  have  since,  and,  unless 
the  world  comes  to  a  stand-still  will  to  a  still  greater,  that 
nothing  enlarges  the  clerical  vision  like  broad  outlooks 
over  his  own  denominational  fence  into  neighboring  fields 
of  thought.  The  odium  theologicum  had  been  an  unknown 
quantity,  had  there  always  been  free  trade  in  the  com- 
merce of  theological  ideas.  The  years  when  I  attended 
his  church  were  his  years  of  prime  and  of  his  hardest  pro- 
fessional work  and  greatest  activity.  His  sermons  were 
not  of  the  speculative  or  philosophic  type,  for  such  was 
not  the  cast  of  his  mind.  He  was  then  much  in  the 
habit  of  "skeletonizing"  his  sermons,  trusting  to  the 
inspiration  of  the  occasion  for  their  style  and  the  com- 
20 


298  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

plcte  elaboration  of  liis  tlK)u<^ht.  He  rarely  failed  to 
impress  the  leading  doctrines  so  sacred  to  him,  and  often 
combatted  what  he  regarded  the  false  philosophies,  in 
the  pulpit  and  out,  of  the  day.  He  was  of  the  militant 
order  of  men,  and  was  never  happier  than  when  defend- 
ing "  the  faith  "  against  the  men  and  the  system  which 
openly  or  covertly  assailed  it.  He  hated  social  wrongs, 
he  hated  cant.  That  holy  wrath  which  burns  in  the  utter- 
ances of  the  Hebrew  prophets,  as  they  scourge  the  hypoc- 
risy and  oppression  of  their  day,  reappeared  in  this  man 
of  moral  passion  and  of  glowing  sympathy  with  the  just, 
the  good  and  the  true,  and  of  hate  of  the  wrong,  the  hypo- 
crite and  the  false.  No  man  was  less  awed  by  power  in  any 
unworthy  sense ;  no  man  paid  less  homage  to  accidental 
greatness.  All  the  veneering  of  society  he  mercilessly  tore 
from  those  who  sought  it  for  a  covering  of  selfishness  and 
oppressive  greed. 

One  pulpit  characteristic  may  be  noted — the  large  use 
he  made  of  the  poetry  of  the  Bible.  Himself  a  poet, 
his  fancy  literally  reveled  in  the  imagery  of  the  Hebrew 
melodists.  The  Book  of  Job,  Ecclesiastes,  the  later 
prophets,  and  above  all,  the  Psalms,  were  of  his  poetic 
religious  classics.  I  doubt  if  I  ever  heard  him  preach  or 
pray  that  he  did  not  invest  much  of  his  thought  with  the 
poetry  of  the  Old  Testament.  More  than  any  man  I 
ever  knew,  his  type  of  mind,  his  methods  of  illustration, 
his  genius,  in  short,  were  of  Hebrew  mould.  If  he 
discoursed  of  death,  the  Ninetieth  Psalm  was  on  his  lips. 
He  never  wearied  of  the  rhythmic  thought  of  that  "Song 
of  Moses."  The  imagery  of  the  decay  of  the  human 
faculties  in  the  closing  chapter  of  Ecclesiastes,  "  The 
silver  cord  is  loosed,  the  golden  bowl  is  broken,  the 
pitcher  at  the  fountain,  and  the  wheel  at  the  cistern," 
were  his  interpreters  of  the  vanishing  shadows  of  time. 


JOHN   C.    LORD,    D.  D.  299 

"  How  is  the  strong  staff  broken  and  the  beautiful 
rod ;"  "  The  beauty  of  Israel  is  slain  upon  the  high 
places,  how  are  the  mighty  fallen  and  the  weapons  of 
war  perished,"  voiced  his  lament  over  the  great  dead 
whom  he  mourned.  His  memory  was  a  picture-gallery 
of  the  Book  of  Job,  and  in  his  moments  of  intellectual 
exaltation  he  would  bear  you  as  in  a  triumphal  chariot 
amid  the  sublimities  of  the  Arabian  poet.  He  loved  a 
few  of  the  old  English  poets  from  whose  wells  he  oftener 
drew  than  from  the  moderns.  He  had  no  sympathy  with 
the  sentimental  schools,  and  his  taste  was  severe  and 
exacting.  As  illustrating  his  love  of  sacred  poetry,  I 
will  relate  an  incident  connected  with  a  visit  to  him  a 
few  weeks  before  his  death.  He  was  too  weak  to  walk 
unaided,  his  voice  feeble,  but  his  spiritual  vision  clear  as 
the  sunlight.  He  spoke  of  poetry  as  the  natural  form  of 
expression  of  divine  praise  and  worship,  and  quoted  from 
his  favorite  Hebrew  poets.  He  asked  me  to  read  the 
translation  of  the  Russian  Hymn  to  the  Deity — a  favorite, 
and  a  hymn  of  marvelous  grandeur  and  sublimity. 

The  reading  concluded,  he  pronounced  it  the  noblest 
of  modern  hymns  of  praise.  I  said  I  knew  another  not 
unworthy  to  go  with  it,  and  read  his  own  "  Ode  to  God." 
At  the  conclusion  of  the  reading,  the  tears  flowing  down 
his  cheeks,  he  said,  "  It  is  much  better  than  I   thought." 

With  all  the  boldness  and  vigor  of  his  mind,  his  sen- 
sibility found  expression,  on  occasion,  in  strains  of  elegiac 
beauty.  I  am  tempted  to  recall  an  illustration  of  this 
side  of  his  genius.  This  example  is  from  a  funeral 
sermon  delivered  on  the  occasion  of  the  death  of  young 
Sprague,  son  of  the  late  Dr.  Sprague,  whose  memory  is 
still  fragrant  among  us.  He  accidentally  shot  himself  on 
Grand    Island,  and    for   three   days   his   body  was   undis- 


300  ADDKKSSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

covered,  and  when  found  had  no  appearance  of  decay.     I 
quote  from  the  sermon  a  reference  to  this  circumstance  : 

He  fell  without  a  struggle  or  a  motion;  one  moment  full  of 
hfe,  in  the  next  his  mortal  remains  lay  under  the  shadows  of 
the  primitive  forests,  protected  from  the  sun  by  the  boughs  of 
those  ancient  trees,  which  were  planted  by  the  hand  of  God 
before  the  vessel  of  Columbus  touched  the  shore  of  the  new 
world.  There,  in  the  calm  quiet  of  its  last  sleep,  lay  the  body 
of  our  dear  young  friend,  for  days  and  nights,  yet,  no  wild 
beast  of  the  forest  was  suffered  to  touch  it,  no  fowl  of  the 
air  was  permitted  to  alight  upon  that  soul-deserted  tenement ; 
with  strange  instinctive  reverence  the  denizens  of  the  woods 
respected  the  remains  which  are  before  us  to-day,  unmutilated 
and  with  less  change  than  is  the  ordinary  result  of  death.  No 
storm  beat  upon  this  defenseless  tabernacle  of  a  departed 
spirit,  no  rain  descended  to  disfigure  or  deform  that  guarded 
body ;  only  the  dews  fell,  like  angels'  tears,  and  they  were 
dried  up  by  the  breath  of  the  morning.  We  may  imagine 
the  innocent  birds  gazing  down  from  the  neighboring  trees 
with  amazement,  upon  this  strange  tenant  of  their  solitudes ; 
watching  with  curious  eyes  the  calm  repose  of  the  lifeless  body, 
until  the  'sentinel  stars  set  their  watch  in  the  sky,'  looking 
pitifully  down  through  the  openings  of  the  forest  with  their 
calm,  pure  eyes,  till  the  dawning  day.  So  God  protected  the 
body  of  our  departed  friend  in  the  wilderness,  until  human 
feet  were  directed  to  its  resting-place,  and  hands  of  men,  with 
reverence  and  solemn  awe,  raised  and  bore  it  to  those  who 
waited  in  that  fearful  suspense.  Which  is  harder  to  be  borne 
than  the  bitterness  of  death. 

His  ablest  papers  were  of  a  controversial  character, 
whatever  their  form.  He  was  like  the  war  horse  of 
whose  description  he  was  so  fond.  "  He  saith  among 
the  trumpets,  ha !  ha !  and  he  smelleth  the  battle  afar  off, 
the  thunder  of  the  captains  and  the  shouting."  His 
genius  was  happy  in  the  stimulus  of  opposition,  and 
when  engaged  with  a  foeman  worthy  his  steel,  he  was 


JOHN   C.    LORD,   D.  D.  3OI 

incarnate  courage  and  power.  There  is  a  touching 
reference  to  the  part  he  had  borne  in  the  controversies  of 
his  time,  in  his  address  to  his  people  on  the  twenty-fifth 
anniversary  of  his  pastorate.     He  says: 

In  the  providence  of  God  it  has  so  happened  that  much 
of  the  labor  and  odium  of  the  necessary  controversy  with 
aggressive  errors  and  heresies  has  fallen  to  my  lot.  When 
rationalism  has  put  forth  its  dogmas,  in  some  offensive  and 
hostile  way,  I  have  been  called  to  stand  in  the  breach. 

He  then  proceeds  to  speak  of  his  defenses  of  the  doc- 
trine of  his  Church,  and  his  resistance  to  the  aggressions 
of  Romanism  : 

In  all  this  I  have  been  the  servant  and  agent  of  the  Protestant 
and  Orthodox  denominations  of  this  city,  but  it  has  happened 
in  my  case  as  in  that  of  many  a  better  and  abler  man,  that 
instead  of  a  grateful  remembrance  of  a  good  service  rendered 
in  a  perilous  time,  the  imputation  of  a  controversial  temper 
has  followed  and  been  the  reward  of  the  difficult  and  even 
dangerous  duty  I  have  been  called  to  discharge. 

A  single  sentence  reveals  his  satisfaction  that  the  age 
of  controversy  had  passed,  and  that  he  too  welcomed  the 
new  era : 

If  I  know  myself,  I  am  not  inclined  to  controversy ;  though 
constitutionally  fearless  I  am  a  lover  of  peace,  and  no  one  who 
has  imputed  to  me  a  spirit  of  controversy  can  rejoice  more 
than  I  have  done  that  for  the  last  few  years,  I  have  not  been 
compelled  to  enter  the  arena  of  theological  discussion. 

The  Doctor's  feehng  protest  was  unnecessary.  After 
the  smoke  of  the  battle  has  cleared  away  and  the  passions 
of  the  hour  subsided,  Dr.  Lord  appears  one  of  the  most 
unselfish  and  consecrated  men  that  ever  entered  the  lists 
to  battle  for  the  right.  And  of  all  the  contestants,  on 
either  side,  none  returned  from  the  conflict  with  brighter 
shield  or  more  untarnished  honor. 


302  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

Few  men  communicated  so  much  with  the  public 
through  the  press  as  did  Dr.  Lord.  For  tlie  first  twenty 
years  of  his  Buffalo  ministry  he  discussed  ahnost  every 
question  of  hirge  interest.  His  articles  to  the  public  jour- 
nals and  his  pamphlets  would  make  volumes. 

In  a  pre-eminent  degree  he  for  many  years  held  the 
position  here  which  so  many  of  the  clergy  hold  in  Great 
Britain,  that  of  an  educator  of  the  public,  and  creator  of 
public  opinion  of  matters  of  large,  but  general  interest.  I 
believe  Great  Britain  owes  as  much  to  some  of  her  clergy 
as  she  does  to  her  statesmen,  for  the  reform  of  abuses 
which  were  crushing  out  her  life. 

Sydney  Smith,  and  Charles  Kingsley  of  a  later  genera- 
tion, are  examples  of  clergymen  who  carried  the  sorrows 
and  physical  needs  of  the  masses  on  their  hearts,  and  were 
felt  in  every  corner  of  the  kingdom  through  their  earnest 
work  to  relieve  them.  It  indicates  a  timely  revolution. 
The  bodies  of  men  must  be  taken  care  of  as  well  as  their 
souls.  The  clergy  are  an  educated  class,  consecrated  to 
self-denying  labor,  and  removed  from  the  ordinary  temp- 
tations to  self-seeking,  and  there  is  no  reason  why  they 
should  not  be  great  factors  in  every  movement  which  seeks 
better  laws,  and  better  administration  affecting  popular 
health,  popular  morals,  and  the  comforts  and  recreations 
of  the  people.  I  confess  to  no  sympathy  with  that  feel- 
ing which  would  restrict  the  clergy  to  the  spiritual  office 
of  their  profession.  Some  of  the  best  outside  work  done 
to-day  in  this  country,  is  done  by  the  clergy  of  all  schools, 
liberal  and  orthodox.  Their  influence  as  a  profession  is 
not  of  the  same  type  as  fifty  years  ago ;  less  popular  awe 
hedges  them  in  to  make  them  a  peculiar  class,  above, 
rather  than  of,  the  people ;  but  their  true  power  is,  I  be- 
lieve, greater  than  ever,  because  it  is  related  more  nearly 
to  humanity  in  its  daily  needs.     It  has  lost  none  of  its 


JOHN   C.    LORD,    D.  D.  303 

sense  of  the  relations  of  the  present  to  the  future  Hfe, 
but  it  has  a  better  appreciation  of  the  relations  of  this  life 
to  itself,  as  felt  in  the  industries  and  home-lives  of  men. 

The  strong  elements  of  Dr.  Lord  brought  out  in  his 
public  career  were  hardly  more  distinguishing  than  the 
characteristics  revealed  in  private  and  personal  relations. 
He  was  genial,  with  a  happy  flow  of  wit  and  humor  and 
repartee.  He  loved  cheerful  companionship,  and  valued 
the  good  things  of  the  world  as  gifts  of  God  for  human 
use.  He  had  no  small  arts,  or  sly  policies,  but  was  open, 
above  board.  If  he  opposed,  he  opposed  like  a  man.  If 
he  was  on  your  side,  he  was  faithful  to  the  death.  He 
was  impetuous  but  chivalric.  He  had  prejudices  to  con- 
quer, but  no  conscious  injustice  to  others  to  lament.  He 
had  the  simplicity  of  a  child,  and  without  vanity  was 
proud.  He  was  a  rash  man  who  ventured  to  trifle  with 
his  self-respect,  or  to  strike  where  he  loved.  He  would 
serve  in  no  Philistine  temple  for  the  sport  of  lords  or  fools. 
He  would  rather,  Samson-like,  "  bow  himself  with  all  his 
might"  between  its  "middle  pillars."  There  is  a  holy 
anger  that  resteth  in  the  bosom  of  wise  men. 

He  was  a  warm  friend.  He  was  truly  "  a  good  Griffith," 
and  no  one  who  had  need  of  a  mantle  of  charity  could 
ask  for  one  of  more  ample  folds  than  his.  It  was  a 
beautiful  trait  and  sometimes  cost  him  dear,  for  he  was 
not  a  discriminating  judge  of  character.  He  was  trustful, 
sympathetic,  and  had  a  large  vision  for  the  virtues  of  his 
friends. 

His  home  was  literally  a  place  of  refuge  for  the  poor 
and  needy.  Without  children  of  his  own,  the  children  of 
others,  and  often  of  the  extreme  poor,  had  the  protection 
and  care  of  his  house.  These  offices  were  sometimes 
rewarded  with  grateful  love.  There  is  a  poetic  beauty 
in  this  incident :     A  poor  and  simple-minded  lad  living  in 


304  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

the  vicinit)-  hatl  learned  to  call  the  Doctor  friend.  When 
told  of  his  death,  he  be<^ged  for  his  little  savings  that  he 
might  buy  flowers  for  the  burial  time.  He  was  gratified, 
and  his  handful  of  winter  bloom  was  placed  at  the  feet  of 
his  friend,  wliere  they  now  rest  in  the  deep  silence. 

This  sympathetic  nature  overflowed  the  ordinary  chan- 
nels and  led  him  to  befriend  the  brute  creation.  I  will 
venture  to  say  that  no  house  in  the  land  has  given  more 
sympathy  and  care  to  races  of  domestic  animals  than 
his.  No  words  but  his  own  can  give  any  adequate  idea 
of  his  hate  of  cruelty  to  the  poor  beasts  that  serve  us, 
and  the  high  place  he  gives  them  in  the  Divine  Thought. 
The  following  of  his  sonnets  deserves  to  be  written 
in  gold  : 

"  Doth  God  take  care  of  oxen  ?" — who  upholds 
All  suns  and  systems — round  whose  august  seat 
The  veiled  Cherubim  with  covered  feet 
Cry  Holy  !    Holy  ! — He  whose  care  enfolds 
The  Heavenly  Powers  who  thro'  the  streets  of  gold 
Pass  out  angelic  messengers,  more  fleet 
Than  winds  to  do  his  will  ?     He  who  of  old 
Spared  Nin'veh  for  his  herds,  doth  yet  behold 
The  poor  dumb  creatures,  who  do  ever  cry 
To  him  for  judgment,  groaning  with  the  lash 
And  wounds  and  hunger — can  that  All-seeing  Eye 
Fail  to  regard  and  judge,  before  whose  flash 
The  Heavens  grow  pale  ?     Each  moan  of  agony 
Is  placed  on  record  'gainst  the  avenging  day. 

How  he  loved  Buffalo!  Had  it  been  all  his  own  he 
could  not  have  been  more  devoted  to  its  interests.  He 
believed  in  her,  and  in  her  future  as  a  leading  American 
city.  His  life  here  as  a  lawyer  and  clergyman  compassed 
almost  the  whole  growth  of  the  town.  He  knew  the 
early  men  who  laid  the  foundations  of  the  city.  He  had 
followed  many  of  them  to  the  grave.  He  had  outlived 
all  his  early  pulpit  colleagues  save  one,  who  is  still  with 
ts,  discharging  the  duties  of  the  position  he  so  long  has 


JOHN   C.    LORD,    D.  D.  305 

honored.  There  was  no  other  who  on  that  bleak  winter's 
day  could  so  fittingly,  and  none  with  more  feeling,  dis- 
charge the  last  offices  at  the  grave  of  our  friend  than  the 
venerable  rector  of  St.  Paul's. 

About  the  last  public  appearance  of  Dr.  Lord  was  at 
the  banquet  of  the  Buffalo  bar,  a  few  months  before  his 
death.  The  occasion  found  its  highest  interest  in  his 
presence.  For  the  first  time  in  a  half  century  he  stood 
with  his  early  guild — recognized  as  one  of  them,  and 
honored  for  his  long  and  useful  career.  Out  of  two  hun- 
dred guests  there  was  not  one  present  who  knew  him  in 
his  first  professional  days.  His  life  had  come  round  a  full 
circle,  and  he  came  like  a  warrior  of  fifty  years'  service,  to 
bid  the  profession  of  his  youth  "  Hail  and  farewell."  I  am 
sure  that  none  who  were  then  present  will  ever  forget  the 
wit  and  the  genius,  and  the  rich  nature  which  he  brought 
to  that  banquet,  and  poured  out  so  prodigally  for  our  de- 
light. His  form  and  presence  never  appeared  more  grandly 
than  on  that  occasion,  and  when  he  left  he  carried  with  him 
the  homage  of  all  hearts. 

I  know  that  pictorial  immortality  is  apt  to  be  as  "  words 
writ  in  water."  Still  it  has  been  thought  best  to  found  in 
the  New  City  Hall  a  representative  portrait  gallery  of 
Buffalo's  illustrious  lawyers  and  judges.  Dr.  Lord  had  a 
dual  professional  life:  eminent  in  one,  honored  in  both 
professions.  Why  should  it  not  be  devolved  upon  the 
Buffalo  artist  whose  national  reputation  is  our  renown  as 
well  as  his,  to  paint  for  that  gallery  the  picture  of  this 
peer  of  the  greatest  of  them  all  ?  Do  you  say  this  will 
never  be  ? 

I  remember  the  reply  of  the  elder  Cato  to  one  asking 
why  he  had  no  public  statue  :  "  I  would  much  rather  be 
asked  why  I  have  no  statue  than  why  I  have  one." 


3o6  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

His  long  service  in  the  ministi'\-  fDiiiKl  him  at  length 
old  and  weary.  Responsive  to  his  repeated  and  urgent 
requests,  his  people  reluctantly  granted  him  release,  and  in 
1873  his  resignation  of  the  pastorate  was  accepted.  That 
occasion  is  historic,  and  was  marked  by  the  tenderest 
expressions  of  mutual  love.  A  young  man  took  his  place, 
whom  the  Doctor  at  once  adopted  to  his  confidence  and 
heart.  And  so  the  curtain  drops  on  the  active  part  of  a 
great  life. 

Twenty-five  years  ago  our  dear  friend  established  his' 
home  in  a  suburban  retreat.  There,  amid  broad  acres, 
beautified  by  his  own  hands,  and  in  a  noble  library  where 
were  gathered  the  thoughts  of  the  ages,  he  enriched  his 
nature  for  the  duties  of  time,  and  prepared  for  the  limit- 
less future. 

For  a  half  century  he  had  consecrated  his  powers  to 
humanity  and  to  God.  Having  passed  the  summit  hour 
of  ordinary  life,  on  Sunday,  January  21,  1877,  he  died.  He 
died  in  the  city  that  honored  and  revered  him,  surrounded 
by  kindred  and  friends  that  loved  him.  His  life  was  full- 
orbed,  his  death  a  peaceful  transition. 

"  Nothing  is  here  for  tears,  nothing  to  wail, 
Or  knock  the  breast,  no  weakness,  no  contempt, 
Dispraise  or  blame — nothing  but  well  and  fair. 
And  what  may  quiet  us  in  a  death  so  noble." 


GROSVENOR   \V.    HEACOCK,    D.  D.  307 


GROSVENOR   W.  HEACOCK,  D.  D. 

A  Tribute  to  his  Memory,  published  in  the  Buffalo  Commercial 
Advertiser,  May  7,  1877. 


In  a  sense  in  which  it  has  never  been  said  before, 
our  great  Buffalonian  is  dead  !  Grosvenor  W.  Heacock 
belonged  to  Buffalo  by  birth,  by  the  associations  of  his 
youth,  by  the  relationships  of  his  own  home-altars,  and 
by  that  manhood  and  professional  career  which  began 
here,  which  he  never  would  transfer  elsewhere,  and  which 
was  here  concluded  among  a  people  that  loved  him  and 
in  the  city  that  honored  him,  and  of  whose  moral  and 
intellectual  life  he  was  a  crowning  glory. 

Doctor  Heacock  was  his  own  original,  a  type  of  a  class 
which  rarely  appears  in  our  age  of  material  ambitions. 
He  was  a  man  of  moral  enthusiasms,  with  an  eloquence 
which  overleaped  the  bounds  of  logical  methods  and  bore 
all  who  came  under  its  spell  into  the  deepest  currents  of 
sympathy  and  resolve.  There  is  no  American  of  our 
time  with  whom  we  can  compare  him.  The  period  of 
the  Revolution  furnished  the  nearest  parallel  in  James 
Otis ;  but  in  temperament,  in  moral  passion,  in  self-con- 
secration to  humanity,  and  in  that  power  of  persuasion 
which  is  irresistible  as  the  ocean  currents,  we  can  think 
of  no  one  he  so  closely  resembled  as  Wilberforce.  Had 
he  been  in  his  place  he  would  have  acted  his  part.  The 
hater  of  oppression  and  wrong,  the  friend  of  liberty  and 
right,  fearless,  lovable  as  infancy,  and  sweet  with  all 
gentlenesses  in  private  life,  who  can  doubt  that  had  his 


308  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

been  a  iiarlianieiUaiy  career  during  the  struggle  against 
the  foreign  and  colonial  slave  trade,  he  would  have  carved 
his  name  as  deep  in  the  century  as  did  the  great  English- 
man, whom  in  his  moral  and  Christian  character,  and  in 
his  genius,  he  so  much  resembled  ? 

He  was  born  for  revolutionary  times,  and  in  this  respect 
he  was  happy  in  the  opportunity  of  his  life.  He  entered 
upon  his  professional  career  when  the  drama  which  culmi- 
nated in  civil  war  was  opening.  He  was  in  its  first  act  if 
not  in  its  first  scene.  We  have  read  descriptions  and  heard 
personal  recitals  by  eye-witnesses,  of  his  first  revelation, 
on  a  national  theatre,  of  his  powers.  It  was  at  a  session 
of  a  New-School  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  the  special  occasion,  a  discussion  of  the  slavery 
question.  The  conservative  element  in  the  assembly  was 
strong  and  gaining  the  ascendancy.  The  alarmed  radicals 
called  upon  Dr.  Heacock  to  oppose  it.  He  accepted  the 
leadership,  and  his  speech  was  one  of  the  events  in  the 
national  controversy.  His  triumph  was  complete ;  the 
assembly  was  borne  to  the  highest  pitch  of  enthusiasm. 
His  national  reputation  dates  from  that  hour,  and  from 
that  day  until  his  failing  health  forbade  such  importunity, 
he  had  repeated  calls  to  pulpits  in  every  section  of  the 
free  States. 

He  had  all  the  elements  of  a  commanding  orator.  He 
had  a  majestic  presence,  a  voice  musical  as  a  lute,  which 
was  modulated  to  every  phase  of  sensibility  and  to  every 
degree  of  passion.  He  had  a  moral  nature  ever  sensitive 
to  duty,  to  honor  and  to  manhood.  Wrong  he  might  be 
in  his  premise,  illogical  in  his  methods,  but  his  moral 
nature,  always  supreme,  guided  every  thought  and  act  of 
his  life.  He  had  a  deep  sympathy  with  the  sorrows  and 
sufferings  of  his  fellow-men.  He  broke  no  bruised  reed, 
he  wept  with  those  that  wept,  and  bore  in  his  heart  every 


GROSVENOR   W.    HEACOCK,   D.  D.  309 

sadness  that  sought  its  confidence.  He  was  a  fearless 
man ;  moral  courage  had  in  him  its  complete  incarnation. 
All  these  elements  united  to  a  warm  imagination  and  a 
passion,  which,  profoundly  as  it  might  seem  to  sleep, 
was,  on  occasion,  roused  as  the  sea  when  lashed  by  the 
tempests,  combined  to  make  him  a  consummate  orator. 

Like  all  men  of  his  temperament,  he  was  unequal. 
He  required  the  occasion  and  the  personal  conditions 
for  the  exercise  of  his  highest  power.  He  was  grand  in 
his  simplicity;  careless  of  fame,  unpretending,  exacting 
nothing,  yielding  everything  but  principle  to  friendship 
and  courtesy,  generous,  appreciative  and  loving ;  he  was 
a  true  representative  of  the  nobility  of  God.  His  pres- 
ence was  an  atmosphere  and  an  inspiration.  The  tone  of 
private  and  public  life  was  elevated  and  purified  wherever 
he  moved.  In  this  sense,  Buffalo  has  met  a  loss  greater 
than  she  knows.  "  Native  here  and  to  the  manner  born," 
there  was  conceded  to  him  a  power  no  successor  can  ever 
command.     His  leadership  was  undisputed. 

Clarke,  Lord,  Heacock,  have  in  rapid  succession  been 
summoned  away.  The  keen,  incisive  intellect  of  the  one, 
the  polemic  power  of  the  other,  and  the  splendid  genius 
of  the  last  of  the  triumvirate,  gave  supreme  renown  to 
the  Buffalo  pulpit.  They  had  distinct  individualities 
and  mental  characteristics.  Yet  their  very  diversity 
constituted  a  rare  unity  of  moral  and  intellectual  power. 

Sadly  we  follow  to  the  grave  the  man  whose  nature 
and  gifts  have  reflected  so  much  honor  upon  his  native 
city,  and  whose  unconscious  influence  will  survive  when 
all  its  material  glory  shall  have  faded  away. 


,IO  ADDRESSES  AND   MISCELLANIES. 


GEORGE    R.    BABCOCK. 

Remarks  at  a  Meeting  of  the  Bar  of  Erie  County, 
September  26,  1876. 


Mr.  Chairman  : 

It  is  with  arlmost  filial  sorrow  that  I  unite  with  the  Bar 
in  these  offices  of  respect  for  our  deceased  brother. 

In  1842  I  came  to  Buffalo  and  at  once  entered  into  a 
brief  partnership  with  Mr.  Babcock.  From  that  time  to 
his  death  our  relations  were  of  the  closest  intimacy.  For 
the  last  twenty  years  there  has  been  no  living  man  in 
whom  I  have  trusted  so  absolutely,  and  in  this  intimate 
association  I  learned  the  great  qualities  of  his  nature. 
They  won  my  highest  admiration,  my  warmest  love. 
And,  sir,  I  should  be  the  most  unworthy  of  men  if,  in 
view  of  all  I  owe  his  friendship,  my  heart  was  not  full  of 
grateful  memory. 

Mr.  Babcock's  life  in  Buffalo  spanned  a  full  half  century 
— all  the  important  period  of  the  history  of  the  city.  It 
was  but  a  frontier  village  when  he  chose  it  for  his  home 
with  no  dream  of  the  great  future  stored  for  it  in  the 
advancing  years. 

He  witnessed  the  rise  and  progress  of  the  great  reputa- 
tions of  the  men  of  the  past  who  have  given  civic  renown 
to  Buffalo,  and  he  had  no  small  part  in  promoting  their 
careers.  He  has  seen  two  or  three  generations  of  lawyers 
pass  from  the  stage,  and  he  stood  in  our  midst  as  stands 
the  last  oak  of  the  primitive  forest,  noble,  majestic, 
tranquilly  awaiting  the  hour  when  it,  too,  should  fall  by 


GEORGE   R.    BABCOCK.  3II 

tile  hand  of  the  Destroyer.  And  now  he,  the  last  pro- 
fessional representative  of  the  early  time,  the  venerable 
Father  of  the  Bar,  who  but  a  few  days  ago  was  upon  our 
streets  scattering  benedictions  upon  all  who  sought  the 
cheer  of  his  friendship,  under  circumstances  that  touch- 
ingly  appeal  to  our  warmest  sympathy,  and  while  in  the 
discharge  of  generous  duties  in  the  public  service,  has 
fallen. 

Mr.  Babcock  was  a  largely  endowed  man,  and  but  for 
the  lack  of  a  certain  self-assertion,  and  for  the  further 
lack  of  ambition  for  worldly  distinction,  he  would  have 
had  a  conceded  place  among  the  foremost  men  of  the 
nation.  His  character,  his  habits  of  thought,  his  tastes, 
his  prejudices,  if  such  he  had,  were  modeled  after  the 
old  and  severe  school  of  the  early  part  of  the  century. 
And  he  never  ceased  to  represent  the  type  of  character 
which  was  formed  b)-  that  age  of  dignity  and  calm.  His 
mind  was  eminently  practical.  He  never  dazzled,  but 
always  instructed.  He  sought  the  central  fact  in  all  his 
investigations,  and  when  he  found  the  truth  he  never 
weakened  it  by  anything  less  severe  and  chaste  than 
itself.  He  was  a  sound  lawyer,  and  had  the  elements, 
had  his  life  been  devoted  to  purely  professional  studies, 
of  a  great  jurist.  His  love  of  justice,  his  clear  analysis, 
his  knowledge  of  men  and  human  motives,  would  have 
made  him  an  ideal  chancellor.  Next  to  the  sense  of  jus- 
tice which  was  the  guide  of  all  his  conduct,  I  should  say 
that  plain  common  sense  was  a  distinguishing  character- 
istic. These  two  elements  made  him  a  safe  adviser,  and 
kept  his  own  life  upon  the  highest  plane  of  action.  If 
his  judgment  was  not  infallible,  his  heart  was  pure,  and 
turned  as  steadily  as  the  needle  to  the  pole,  to  duty. 
Great  as  was  our  friend,  and  many-sided  as  was  his 
superiorit}',    his    moral'  greatness    was    the    pre-eminent 


312  ADDRESSES  AND   MISCELLANIES. 

force  of  liis  nature.  It  led  his  intellect,  it  permeated  his 
\\hole  beini^,  it  recalled  the  noblest  types  of  Roman 
virtue,  it  illustrated  the  ideal  of  Christian  character, 

Mr.  Babcock  was  a  man  of  almost  universal  intelligence. 
To  be  in  conversation  \\ith  him  for  a  half  hour  on  gen- 
eral topics  was  to  gather  treasures  new  and  old  from  his 
reading  and  his  thought.  He  loved  literature,  and  few 
are  so  familiar  as  was  he  ^\•ith  the  old  classics  of  our  lan- 
guage. He  made  no  parade  of  his  companionship  with 
them,  but  they  were  his  fireside  divinities. 

Our  friend  was  easily  misunderstood  in  some  respects 
by  those  who  did  not  know  him  well.  He  had  a  reserved 
manner  sometimes  mistaken  for  haughtiness  or  unreason- 
able pride.  Nothing  could  be  more  unjust.  He  was 
simple  as  a  child  in  feeling,  and  put  little  estimate  upon 
the  accidental  surroundings  which  in  our  artificial  forms 
of  society  give  importance  to  individuals.  He  had  no 
contempt  for  these  surroundings,  but  they  weighed  little 
in  his  estimate  of  men.  The  poorest  and  most  humble 
could  readily  find  in  his  sympathy  the  key  to  his  heart. 

Mr.  Babcock  was  of  the  conservative  school  of  men. 
He  had  no  sympathy  with  that  spirit  of  innovation  which 
falsely  calls  itself  reform.  He  challenged  every  revolu- 
tionary movement  in  politics  and  society.  If  the  move- 
ment justified  itself  he  was  prepared  to  adopt  what 
appeared  sound  in  principle  and  policy.  In  one  sphere 
of  thought  the  child  was  pre-eminently  "  father  of  the 
man,"  and  from  it  no  philosophy  or  science  could  change 
him.  I  refer  to  the  Christian  faith  as  he  learned  it  at  his 
mother's  knee.  He  believed  religion  to  be  the  basis  of 
public  morals,  and  public  morals  to  be  the  basis  of 
rational  liberty,  and  Christianity  the  only  crystalization 
possible  among  us  of  the  religious  sentiment.  In  one  of 
our   conversations    upon    the    change    wrought    in    some 


GEORGE    R.    BABCOCK.  313 

minds  by  scientific  studies,  lie  said  with  unwonted  empha- 
sis that  he  did  not  know  what  scientific  theories  he  miijht 
be  brought  to  adopt,  but  of  one  thing  he  was  sure,  he 
should  never  abandon  his  faith  in  the  divinity  of  Jesus. 
It  was  to  him  the  central  truth  in  the  history  of  humanity. 

You  will  indulge  me  in  a  brief  reference  to  his  character 
as  a  friend.  God  never  gave  to  man  a  heart  more  true 
and  constant  in  that  relation  than  he  gave  to  George  R. 
Babcock.  In  his  nature  was  a  deep,  perennial  fountain 
of  affection  for  those  who  shared  the  confidence  of  his 
heart.  He  was  not  given  to  protestations  of  friendship, 
but  his  life  was  full  of  its  sweetest  offices.  He  was  ever 
ready  with  counsel  to  advise,  with  sympathy  to  cheer, 
with  time,  talent  and  substance  to  aid.  Friendship  with 
him  was  something  sacred  and  holy,  and  no  purer  offer- 
ings than  his  w^ere  laid  upon  its  altar. 

Such  was  our  friend  as  he  was  revealed  to  me  during 
our  pilgrimage  together  on  "  this  bank  and  shoal  of  time." 

It  was  a  beautiful  vision.  Was  it  only  a  vision?  And 
has  it  vanished  forever  from  our  sight  ?  Let  us  not 
believe  it.  Let  us,  rather,  cling  to  the  old  faith  that 
makes  friendship,  and  love,  and  the  nobility  of  man, 
immortal. 

21 


314  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 


DENNIS    BO  WEN. 

Remarks   at  a  Meeting  ok    ihk  Bar  ok  Erie  County, 
April  23,  1877. 


Mr.  Chairman  : 

This  place  and  this  occasion  suggest  the  contrasts  of 
human  Hfe.  It  is  but  a  few  months  since  these  halls  were 
dedicated  to  their  uses  by  appropriate  ceremonial.  Now 
they  open  their  doors  for  these  observances  of  respect 
and  affection  for  the  man  who,  with  worthy  coadjutors, 
presented  them,  a  completed  trust,  to  the  public,  with  no 
taint  of  corruption  or  jobbery  on  wall  or  pillar,  on  tower 
or  architrave,  a  work  clean  throughout  as  his  own  pure 
heart,  and  henceforth  a  monument  of  his  unselfish  public 
service.  Let  us  emphasize  this  for  a  moment.  During 
the  years  of  construction  of  this  edifice,  Mr.  Bowen 
watched  with  Argus-eye  every  step  of  its  progress,  super- 
vised its  details,  scrutinized  its  expenditures,  and  so 
secured  a  result  which  in  its  fidelities  of  expenditure  is 
the  admiration  of  strangers  who  visit  us,  and  of  a  just 
home  pride.  This  care  and  watchfulness  were  the  gratui- 
tous service  of  a  life  of  public-spirited  citizenship.  It  is 
very  easy  for  a  man  to  live  for  himself,  to  rise  in  the 
morning  and  calculate  how  much  he  can  absorb  of  what 
may  lie  in  his  reach,  but  in  this  country  such  service  as 
Mr.  Bowen  repeatedly  gave  to  the  public  is  not  so  super- 
abundant that  we  may  pass  the  example  without  note. 


DENNIS   BOWEN.  315 

Dennis  Bowen  was  an  extraordinary  man.  Without 
genius,  in  its  ordinary  sense,  or  brilliant  gifts,  he  had 
that  which  avails  in  human  affairs  more  than  genius,  the 
faculty  which  grasps  a  principle  as  by  intuition,  which 
marshals  the  means  adapted  to  ends,  and  organizes 
victory  with  the  instinct  of  a  born  commander.  In  this 
talent,  which  includes  familiarity  with  the  springs  of 
human  action,  and  in  his  personal  character,  is  to  be 
found  the  secret  of  his  success.  Whether  or  not  you 
could  explain  it,  there  was  the  fact — ever  increasing 
power  and  influence  with  the  public.  His  office  was 
certainly  second  to  none  in  the  importance  of  its  business 
trusts.  For  twenty-five  years  its  clientele  represented 
the  largest  wealth  and  our  most  important  private  and 
corporate  interests.  There  was  little  noise  of  machinery, 
but  the  business  was  done,  the  result  attained,  and  the 
master  spirit  who  largely  directed  it  sat  as  quietly  in  his 
office  as  if  he  were  waiting  for  his  first  brief. 

Was  Mr.  Bowen  a  great  lawyer  in  the  strictly  technical 
sense  ?  Outside  his  real  estate  specialty,  and  in  the  exact 
knowledge  of  commercial  law,  he  had  superiors  at  the  bar. 
In  his  specialties  he  was  at  the  head  of  his  profession, 
and  in  general  business,  in  large  negotiations,  in  every 
question  that  was  to  be  decided  by  common  sense  and 
natural  equity,  he  was  the  peer  of  any  man.  Mr.  Bowen's 
professional  alliances  reveal  the  estimate  his  brethren  put 
upon  him.  He  v/as  always  associated  with  the  highest 
professional  talent.  The  late  Judge  Hall  and  General 
Adams,  and  Judge  Foster  and  Henry  W.  Rogers,  all 
leaders  in  the  profession,  were  happy  to  accept  his  invita- 
tions to  partnership  relations.  But  while  in  all  these 
instances  he  was  peculiarly  fortunate,  and  sought  these 
gentlemen  to  supplement  his  own  legal  learning  and  for 
the  trial  and  argument  of  causes  in  the  courts,  the  living, 


3l6  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

I  believe,  would  testif)-,  and  the  dead,  could  they  be 
summoned,  that  Mr.  Bowen  was  the  spirit  in  the  wheels 
of  the  power  represented  by  his  office.  And  the  fact 
that  his  clients  ever  adhered  to  him  and  were  of  his 
closest  personal  friends,  would  seem  to  settle  the  question 
of  his  professional  standing. 

Lawyers  are  the  repositories  of  business  confidences, 
and  of  such,  and  of  those  of  a  delicate  and  domestic 
character,  I  believe  he  will  carry  more  with  him  to  the 
grave  than  any  man  we  have  ever  had  among  us.  Men 
and  women  easily  confided  in  him.  He  brought  what 
they  most  needed  to  their  troubles — common  sense  and 
the  instinct  of  justice.  He  made  little  show  of  sympathy, 
utterly  lacked  warm  demonstration  by  speech  or  manner, 
but  in  few  words  which  showed  he  had  grasped  the 
situation,  he  indicated  the  line  of  action,  and  restored 
confidence  to  the  timid  and  doubting.  To  his  profession 
and  to  the  gratuitous  and  thankless  public  trusts  which 
sought  his  intelligence,  his  integrity  and  his  energy,  he 
devoted  his  life. 

Here  was  a  man  who  ran  after  no  popularity,  was 
utterly  devoid  of  the  arts  that  win  it,  with  no  honeyed 
words  of  compliment,  no  methods  of  seeming  to  do  one 
thing  while  actually  doing  another,  who  always  and 
everywhere  represented  a  fact,  a  man 

"  Who  stood  four-square  to  all  the  winds  that  blew," 

who  betrayed  no  friend,  wronged  no  enemy,  and  on 
whose  heart  were  written  by  the  finger  of  God,  "Justice 
and  Truth."  When  to  such  a  character  were  superadded 
unselfishness,  large-heartedness  and  wisdom,  we  need 
look  no  further  for  the  secret  of  his  professional  and 
personal  power  among  his  fellow-men. 


DENNIS    BO  WEN.  317 

He  was  trusted,  believed  in,  and  his  judgment  stood 
for  the  conscience  of  those  who  sought  its  guidance.  If 
all  men,  women  and  children,  whose  equities  amid  con- 
flicting interests,  whose  social  and  domestic  rights  and 
sensibilities  have  been  protected  by  the  just  words  spoken 
in  the  confidence  of  his  personal  and  professional  relations, 
knew  and  should  reveal  their  obligations  to  Dennis  Bowen, 
it  would  be  a  monumental  record  of  invaluable  service 
to  individuals  and  families.  He  w^as  a  born  mediator 
between  conflicting  elements  in  the  whole  range  of 
human  relations. 

I  doubt  if  any  other  Buffalo  lawyer  has  drawn  so  many 
important  last  wills  as  Mr.  Bowen.  I  speak  what  I  know 
when  I  say  that  he  would  never  see  an  act  of  injustice 
embodied  in  a  will  without  protest. 

I  will  give  an  example,  one  honorable  alike  to  counsel 
and  client : 

I  went  into  his  office  one  day  when  he  was  about  to 
deposit  a  will  in  his  safe.  He  of  course  gave  no  infor- 
mation whose  will  it  was,  nor  have  I  any  idea.  He  said 
that  some  men  had  strange  notions  of  what  is  due  to 
their  wives,  and  then  stated  that  the  maker  of  that  will 
instructed  him  to  insert  a  provision  of  $800  per  annum 
for  his  wife.  That  he  told  his  client  it  was  a  shabby 
allowance,  considering  his  fortune,  and  he  insisted  that 
it  be  made  $2,500,  and  it  was  so  provided.  This  sense 
of  the  proper  and  just  pervaded  all  his  private  and  pro- 
fessional life,  and  his  personal  influence  was  the  ready 
shield  of  the  weak  and  defenseless. 

He  was  the  most  epigrammatic  of  men  :  his  thoughts 
always  took  the  shortest  route.  I  will  give  an  illustration, 
and  I  don't  know  a  better : 

While  I  was  abroad  occurred  an  event  in  Buffalo  in 
which  he  knew  I  would  feel  a  special  interest.     Among 


3l8  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

my  letters  one  niorniiit^"  I  saw  his  familiar  hand  in  the  ad- 
dress. The  letter  announced  a  death,  its  immediate  cause, 
the  time  of  illness,  condition  of  affairs  of  deceased,  in  just 
three  lines,     liesides  was  but  a  sin<;le  word — "  Bowen." 

It  was  his  ^^  villi,  vidi,  vici''  method  which  wasted  no 
words  and  omitted  nothing  necessar)'.  The  thou<;htful 
kindness  was  as  complete  as  if  his  lines  had  been  passes. 

May  I  refer  to  one  other  characteristic?  He  could 
do  that  most  difficult  thing"  to  do  in  our  inter-dependent 
relations,  say  "  no"  under  any  circumstances  when  it  was 
the  word  that  should  be  said.  His  power  to  deny,  to 
resist  solicitation  when  his  judgment  disapproved,  was 
heroic.  Illustrations  will  occur  to  many  of  you.  This 
equality  arose  not  from  an  indifference  to  others  or  to  their 
interests,  but  from  his  love  of  the  just.  He  could  not  dis- 
semble, he  could  not  be  false  to  himself.  Parties  might 
be  disappointed  in  their  expectations,  never  deceived. 
His  word  once  given  was  as  a  bond  of  fate. 

As  a  friend  Mr.  Bowen  was  constant  and  thoughtful. 
You  felt  his  friendship  not  in  the  warmth  of  words  or 
manner,  but  in  his  service  and  fidelity.  He  had  great 
simplicity  of  character  and  life.  He  spent  little  on  social 
pageantry,  he  kept  himself  in  moderate  estate  by  his 
gratuities  and  benevolences.  He  might  have  died  a  rich 
man  but  for  one  thing  which  in  his  case  was  fatal,  though 
it  is  not  always  so — he  had  a  heart. 

He  was  never  put  to  that  test,  but,  with  opportunity, 
he  would  have  proved  a  very  able  man  in  the  highest 
public  relations.  The  power  to  do  is  so  much  greater 
than  the  power  to  say,  that  I  believe  he  would  have  risen 
to  the  height  of  any  responsibility.  It  is  the  honest 
purpose,  the  clear  insight,  the  firm  will,  and  the  power  to 
set  in  motion  the  needful  accessories,  that  mark  the  great 
executive.      There    is    a   magnetism    in   genius   that    will 


DENNIS   BOWEN.  3I9 

command  a  following,  but  there  is  a  power  in  the  silent 
man  who  thinks  wisely  and  firmly  executes,  that  com- 
mands the  larger  and  final  confidence,  and  that  power 
was  pre-eminently  Mr.  Bowen's. 

This  occasion  recalls  his  early  professional  associations. 
He  was  a  clerk  in  an  ofifice  of  historic  names,  "  Fillmore, 
Hall  and  Haven,"  all  of  whom,  while  living,  were  his 
close  friends,  and  one  his  partner  until  the  transfer  of 
Judge  Hall  to  the  bench.  The  few  of  us  who  were  the 
professional  contemporaries  of  the  Bar  of  that  period,  who 
remember  its  learning  and  its  powder,  and  its  eminent 
service  in  public  relations,  are  glad  that  our  friend  was 
taught  in  that  school  and  preserved  for  another  generation 
its  traditions  and  its  honor. 

And  noAv  he  too  has  departed !  The  past  is  secure,  the 
undisclosed  possibilities  are  forever  sealed. 

"  There  is  no  necessary  man,"  contains  a  truth  little 
flattering  to  human  vanity.  A  man  dies,  in  whatsoever 
sphere,  the  gap  soon  closes,  and  all  moves  on  as  before. 
So  it  is,  so  it  has  been,  so  it  ever  will  be,  and  except  as 
we  "  trust  the  larger  hope,"  all  our  questioning  comes 
back  to  us  an  echo  and  a  mockery.  With  that  "  larger 
hope,"  we  leave  our  friend,  and  with  the  absolute  trust. 


120  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 


KOSSUTH  AND   INTERVENTION* 


Passion  and  sympathy  arc  rarely  safe  guides  to  an 
administration.  Upon  questions  involving  the  rights  of 
people  and  of  nationalities,  we  are  keenly  sensitive  and 
quick  to  ask  of  the  government  its  sympathetic  action. 
It  is  against  this  outside  pressure  that  the  government 
has  had,  and  probably  ever  will  have  most  strongly  to 
contend. 

This  was  signally  manifested  in  its  earliest  history. 
What  hostility  did  the  administration  of  Washington 
provoke,  because  it  refused  active  co-operation  with 
France  against  England  in  the  early  stage  of  the  wars 
growing  out  of  the  French  revolution !  The  popular 
party,  under  the  sanction  of  the  great  name  of  Jefferson, 
insisted  upon  the  policy  of  active  intervention  and  upon  an 
alliance  with  France  to  beat  down  the  British  Lion.  But 
Washington  was  as  firm  as  he  was  sagacious.  Wise  and 
passionless,  he  mapped  out  the  course  of  his  administra- 
tion, and  laid  down  that  principle  of  conduct  in  our 
foreign  relations  which,  however  jostled  by  the  circum- 
stances of  to-day,  was  intended  to  be,  and  ever  must  be, 
the  guiding-star  of  our  American  policy. 

"  Why,"  says  the  Father  of  his  country,  "  quit  our  own 
to  stand  on  foreign  ground  ?  Why,  by  interweaving  our 
destiny  with  that  of  any  part  of  Europe,  entangle  our 
peace  and  prosperity  in  the  toils  of  European  ambition, 
rivalship,  interest,  humor  or  caprice?        *        *        ■x-       Jt 

*  Published  in  Buffalo  Commercial  Advertiser,  December  i6,  1851. 


KOSSUTH    AND    INTERVENTION.  321 

must  be  unwise  in  us  to  implicate  ourselves  by  artificial 
ties  in  the  ordinary  vicissitudes  of  her  politics,  or  the 
ordinary  combinations  and  collisions  of  her  friendships 
or  enmities." 

If  the  question  of  adherence  to  this  policy  is  an  open 
one,  we  are  glad  it  is  opened  now,  by  so  accomplished  a 
champion  of  intervention  as  Kossuth.  If  Europe,  as 
would  seem,  be  on  the  eve  of  a  general  revolution  ;  if 
the  struggle  of  man  for  self-government,  which  must 
necessarily  elicit  all  our  sympathies  in  his  behalf,  is  to  be 
renewed,  the  government  should  now  predetermine  its 
policy  in  that  conflict.  If  it  be  intervention  and  repub- 
lican alliance,  it  should  provide  for  the  illimitable  drafts 
upon  its  exchequer  and  its  men.  If,  on  the  contrary,  it 
be  armed  neutrality — adherence  to  the  policy  of  Wash- 
ington— it  should  be  prepared  to  resist  the  appeals  from 
without,  and  the  pressure  from  within. 

Our  "manifest  destiny"  has  already  been  the  excuse 
with  multitudes  of  our  people,  for  our  own  wars  of  con- 
quest. The  friends  of  the  doctrine  of  intervention  have 
a  kindred  argument  in  the  so-styled  "  mission  "  of  this 
country.  This,  they  say,  is  to  give  freedom  to  the  world. 
That  to  achieve  this,  we  must  make  universal  war  on 
Absolutism.  Their  doctrine  leads  to  this.  The  "  mission" 
of  this  country  impels  us,  not  to  self-development  by 
activity  at  home,  but  to  a  universal  crusade  against 
thrones,  and  that  led  on  by  the  government  itself.  Our 
business  is  to  set  right  the  wrong  of  the  world.  Man  is 
entitled  to  govern  himself.  Absolutism  is  a  war  upon 
this  right  ;  therefore  it  is  our  mission  to  exterminate 
Absolutism. 

A  beautiful  syllogism,  smacking  of  baggage  wagons, 
gunpowder  and  ships-of-the-line,  to  the  content  of  a 
revolutionist,  if  not  to  the  peace  of  an  empire. 


322  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

Do  \\c  wtoiil;  these  gentlemen  ?  In  the  immediate 
case  of  Kossuth,  the)-  only  ask,  besure,  that  we  depart 
from  the  policy  of  non-intervention  to  compel  Russia  to 
make  no  alliances  with  any  government  de  facto  that  asks 
its  co-operation.  We  detest  the  system  of  Russia  as 
heartily  as  the  most  red-hot  interventionist ;  but  in  asking 
this,  they  ask  what  is  no  part  of  our  duty,  and  what,  it 
attempted,  would  result  in  disaster  and  ruin. 

But  this  is  only  one  of  the  results  of  their  theory.  At 
war  in  their  heads  and  hearts  with  Absolutism,  wherever 
it  exists,  and  confident  that  the  "mission"  of  this 
country  is  to  republicanize  the  world,  and  ready  for  war 
with  any  country  that  shall  aid  another  despotic  State  in 
suppressing  an  internal  revolution,  they  are  prepared, 
when  this  is  accomplished,  for  the  next  step — to  commit 
our  government  to  the  revolting  party ;  to  turn  it  into  a 
confederate  rerolutionist.  Abstractly  regarded,  the  op- 
pression of  Austria  was  no  greater  crime  than  the  inter- 
vention of  Russia  to  perpetuate  it.  Both  were  high 
crimes  against  human  freedom.  There  can  be  no  middle 
ground  for  our  government  between  absolute  non-inter- 
vention in  foreign  quarrels,  and  active  propagandism,  by 
the  sword,  of  republican  opinions. 

Are  we  ready  for  this  position  ?  Are  we  prepared  as 
a  commercial  nation  to  say  to  all  governments  less  liberal 
than  ours,  that  they  are  to  meet,  not  that  might- 
iest of  modern  agencies,  the  enlightened  public  opin- 
ion of  America,  but  our  men-of-war  and  our  soldiery? 
Is  our  commerce,  now  riding  in  security  upon  all  the 
high-seas  of  the  globe,  ready  for  this  game  that  kings 
love  to  play  at  ? 

Undoubtedly  we  can  win  glory  on  such  field,  for  "  Rule 
Britannia "  is  now  sung  with  variations.  But  are  we 
ready  to  pay  the  price    of  this   glory?     Absolutism  can 


KOSSUTH    AND    INTERVENTION.  323 

turn  out  as  many  privateers  as  republicanism  ;  and  the 
confiscation  of  our  floating  property  and  imprisonment 
of  our  sailors,  would  be  hardly  made  good  by  reprisals, 
even  of  equal  value  and  equal  men. 

Where  is  such  a  war  to  stop  ?  Can  we  employ  it  as 
pastime,  and  lay  it  aside  at  pleasure  ?  Such  is  not  the 
nature  of  war.  "  The  dire  Goddess  that  presides  over  it 
with  her  murderous  spear  in  her  hand,  and  her  Gorgon  at 
her  breast,  is  not  a  coquette  to  be  flirted  with."  Once 
entered  upon  on  the  principle  of  intervention  proposed 
by  Kossuth,  and  urged  by  the  class  of  which  we  have 
spoken,  such  a  war  would  soon  be  a  universal  one  with 
every  absolute  power,  to  be  terminated  only  by  exhaus- 
tion of  the  contending  forces.  France  once  thought 
herself  commissioned  to  liberalize  Europe,  and  after 
twenty-five  years'  war  with  the  allied  powers,  she  escaped 
from  Waterloo  to  monarchy,  thence  to  revolution  and 
red-republicanism.  Did  she  achieve  liberty  for  the  na- 
tions, or  honor  or  safety  for  herself,  by  that  crusade  ? 

We  admit  some  good  general  results  to  the  continent 
followed  Napoleon's  campaigns ;  but  they  nurtured  in 
the  French  people  a  restless  spirit  of  revolution  which 
has  made  France  the  prey  of  successive  factions,  and 
driven  her  at  last  to  a  mercenary  soldiery  for  the  main- 
tenance of  her  mock  republic. 

But  it  is  not  proposed  that  we  enter  single-handed  into 
the  lists  against  Absolutism.  We  are  to  be  associated 
with  England,  our  ''natural  ally  !" 

England  and  the  United  States,  together,  can  give 
free  constitutions  to  all  the  world.  She  will  be  our  con- 
federate in  this  figJit  for  peace.  A  very  philanthropic, 
disinterested  country,  this  England.  We  well  may  ask, 
in  the  language  of  Troy's  alarmist, — Sic  notiis  Ulysses? 


324  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

She  niii^lit  stn'k-e  hands  with  us  for  a  time,  if  she  could 
see  a  new  market  thereby  openin*^  for  her  manufactures, 
and  find  in  her  soldiers  guarantees  of  a  monopoly  in 
trade.  But  this  would  be  the  sole  bond  of  her  alliance 
with  us,  to  be  broken  the  instant  she  lost  a  monopoly  of 
advantage. 

We  know  England  has  a  glorious  civilization,  that  she 
is  the  conservator  and  patron  of  all  that  is  elegant  in  art, 
sublime  in  genius,  and  accomplished  in  the  highest  fac- 
ulties of  man.  Here  we  have  a  common  sympathy. 
Beyond  these,  are  rivalry  and  distrust.  With  all  her 
noble  institutions,  we  know  that  her  pretended  love  of 
freedom  for  the  masses,  is  cant  and  hypocrisy.  We  point 
her  to  her  millions  toiling  for  mere  subsistence,  working 
night  and  day  in  pent-up  factories,  or  down  in  the  "  hol- 
low mines  of  earth,"  where  the  sunlight  never  reaches 
them,  ever  hunger-driven,  and  crushed  beneath  the  most 
onerous  taxation,  to  uphold  this  very  magnificence  which 
so  dazzles  and  surprises  us.  And  we  laugh  her  to  scorn 
when  she  prates  of  freedom  and  slavery. 

But  assume  that  we  do  her  injustice,  and  that  England 
will  form  this  alliance  in  accomplishment  of  her  "  mis- 
sion; "  are  we  quite  certain  that  she  wall  deem  it  ended 
with  the  overthrow  of  Absolutism?  She,  too,  like  some 
other  philanthropists,  has  great  sympathy  with  the  for- 
eign oppressed,  and  blind  to  her  own  domestic  slavery 
tenfold  more  aggravated  than  ours,  would  tell  us  that 
slavery  was  a  public  and  private  wrong,  and  that  having 
aided  us  in  humbling  the  Cossack,  she  had  a  "  mission  " 
on  this  continent. 

The  affinities  for  such  an  alliance  are  few,  the  antag- 
onisms between  the  two  countries  innumerable. 

A  visitor  in  England  from  either  of  fifteen  States  of 
this  Union,  is  denied  the  commonest  civilities  of  life,  is 


KOSSUTH   AND   INTERVENTION.  325 

literally  ostracised    from   all  church,  social   and    political 
fellowship. 

What  hope  does  this  afford  for  such  an  alliance  ? 
Proud,  haughty  England  that  knows  no  policy  except  its 
commercial  policy,  that  would  enslave  the  world  to 
monopolize  its  markets, — converted  into  an  amiable 
knight,  to  do  battle  with  us  against  despotism  ! 

"  This  we  then 
May  liope,  when  everlasting  Fate  shall  yield 
To  fickle  Chance,  and  Chaos  judge  the  strife." 

This  country  has  a  "  mission,"  but  it  is  one  of  peace, 
not  of  war.  We  should  extend  our  sympathy  to  every 
people  struggling  for  freer  governments,  and  protest,  if 
you  please,  against  acts  of  oppression  everywhere.  We 
should  invite  to  our  borders  and  welcome  all  who  seek 
the  shelter  of  our  institutions.  But  so  far  as  the  conduct 
of  our  government  is  concerned,  it  should  rest  immov- 
able on  the  policy  of  neutrality  in  foreign  conflicts. 
Here  we  are  secure.  Off  from  this,  we  are  in  counter 
currents,  with  Scylla  and  Charybdis  threatening  us  on 
either  side,  the  easy  victims  of  popular  madness  and 
revolutionary  excesses. 


326  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 


JOHN    BROWN'S    EXECUTION. 


[The  following  appeared  in  the  liuffalo  Comvicrcial  Advertise) ,o\\  Decem- 
ber 2,  1859.  It  was  written  from  a  legal  standpoint,  and  represented  the 
moderately  conservative  thought  of  that  time.  Subsequent  events,  and  the 
growth  of  liberal  ideas  both  in  Europe  and  this  country,  have  led  mankind 
to  judge  that  tragedy,  its  antecedents  and  its  consequents,  by  its  moral  and 
heroic,  rather  than  by  its  legal  character  and  relations.  No  man  is  more 
certain  of  a  permanent  place  in  the  Pantheon  of  the  world's  great  characters 
and  actors  than  John  Brown.] 

John  Brown  wa.s  executed  yesterday,  in  accordance 
with  hi.s  .sentence.  In  some  of  its  aspects  his  was  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  State  trials  on  record,  and  must  have 
more  than  an  ephemeral  interest.  It  was  remarkable  in 
the  character  of  the  accused.  Brown  was  no  wretch  for 
whom  the  gallows  had  a  natural  yearning.  He  was  a  well 
accredited  member  of  an  orthodox  church,  and  maintained 
every  ordinary  relation  of  life  as  became  a  Christian  man. 
On  one  subject  alone  he  seemed  insane  (yet  his  wife  as 
well  as  he  insisted  that  he  was  not  insane — that  his  method 
was  not  the  method  of  madness).  He  believed  in  his 
inmost  soul  that  slaveholding  was  sin,  and  all  slaveholders 
outlaws.  Brave  as  Julius  Csesar,  he  threw  himself  into 
the  Kansas  struggle  with  a  purpose  and  zeal  that  brings 
back  the  memory  of  Cromwell's  old  Ironsides.  He  held 
his  life  not  "a  pin's  fee,"  but  everywhere  braved  danger 
and  death  in  his  efforts  to  run  slaves  into  free  States,  and 
to  resist  the  ruffian  hordes  from  Missouri.  Well  had  it 
been  had  his  aggressive  career  ended  before  he  entered 
upon  his  crusade  against  the  peace,  the  property,  and  the 


JOHN   brown's   execution.  327 

government  of  a  sovereign  State.  Treasonable  as  his  act 
must  be  regarded,  there  was  in  the  method  of  it,  and 
in  the  bearing  of  its  hero,  much  that  commands  our 
admiration. 

He  is  of  no  ordinary  mettle  who  will  take  his  life  in  his 
hand,  enter  a  foreign  State  with  but  few  associates,  depend- 
ing upon  the  aid  of  an  ignorant,  undisciplined,  servile  race 
to  accomplish  his  purpose,  seize  the  local  means  of  de- 
fense, and  set  in  motion  a  revolutionary  government,  which 
if  unsuccessful  must  consign  every  conspirator  to  the  gib- 
bet, and  all  this,  not  for  personal  aggrandizement,  but  "  to 
give  freedom  to  the  captive." 

There  is  so  much  of  the  very  sublime  of  heroism  in  this 
self-consecration,  that  we  almost  forget  the  crime  of  the 
treason  and  the  horrible  results,  too  horrible  to  contem- 
plate, ^\•hich  must  have  followed  a  temporary  success  of 
the  scheme,  in  our  admiration  of  its  daring. 

Then  his  conduct  from  the  moment  his  plot  was  frus- 
trated, and  all  his  machinery  began  to  play  upon  his  own 
head  with  such  terrible  recoil,  down  to  the  fatal  drop 
which  closed  his  earthly  career,  has  been  in  admirable 
keeping  with  his  original  firmness  and  bravery.  No  wild 
savage  who  could  count  in  his  cabin  a  hundred  scalps  of 
butchered  men,  women  and  children,  ever  marched  to  the 
fires  which  a  just  revenge  had  kindled,  with  a  tread  more 
firm,  or  a  cheek  less  blanched,  than  Brown  has  preserved 
in  all  that  solemn  funeral  march  from  his  arrest  to  his 
execution.  Not  a  murmur  has  escaped  him,  not  an  un- 
iTianly  appeal  for  his  life,  no  apology,  no  bending  of  the 
knees  to  power  to  court  one  smile  of  its  favor.  He  looked 
upon  the  gibbet  as  the  pathway  to  glory,  and  upon  death 
as  the  entrance  upon  his  Apotheosis. 

All  the  friendly  action  to  procure  evidence  of  his  insan- 
ity was  prompted  by  kindred  affection,  which   strangely 


328  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCEIJ.ANIES. 

forgot  liis  need  of  a  straii^lit  jacket  until  he  got  into  straits 
indeed.  But  old  John  Brown  asked  no  favor,  and  his 
wife,  devoted  to  him  beyond  the  extravagance  of  poetic 
fancies,  "  counted  it  all  joy  "  that  he  was  to  die  "  Liberty's 
last  great  martyr." 

"  Son  of  St.  Louis,  rise  to  heaven,"  was  not  more  sin- 
cerely uttered  to  Louis  XVL  by  the  good  priest  who 
attended  him,  as  the  axe  was  uplifted  over  his  royal  head, 
than,  as  we  believe,  were  the  words  of  exultant  hope 
and  courage  from  that  devoted  wife  to  that  doomed  hus- 
band. She  is  of  heroic  mould.  Possibly,  and  we  hope  it 
is  so,  that  at  the  last  the  woman  overcame  the  heroine, 
and  she  would  have  given  a  thousand  lives  if  she  possessed 
them,  to  recall  the  tragic  past.     God  help  her ! 

Yet,  with  all  these  elements  which  command  our  sym- 
pathy and  even  our  respect,  and  which  lift  John  Brown 
far  above  the  mean  level  of  an  ordinary  felon  to  that  of 
a  great  State  criminal,  we  cannot  close  our  eyes  to  the 
facts  of  the  case  as  they  stand  when  divested  of  their 
wild  romance,  and  as  they  must  be  viewed  by  the  calm 
future. 

And  when  w^e  so  consider  them,  we  can  come  to  no  other 
conclusion  than  that  never  was  a  life  more  justly  forfeited 
to  a  State. 

Brown,  with  his  associates,  went  into  Virginia,  where 
he  had  neither  property  nor  kindred,  nor  interests  of  any 
kind  whatsoever,  with  the  avowed  purpose  of  running  off 
its  slave  property.  And  to  accomplish  this,  he  takes 
murderous  weapons  to  arm  not  less  than  two  thousand 
slaves.  He  seizes  upon  the  public  armory  (an  act  of  itself 
treason),  and  prepares  to  set  up  an  independent  govern- 
ment. What  must  have  been  the  necessary  result  of  a 
temporary  success? — for  it  could  be  no  more.  Two  thou- 
sand slaves  armed,  and  infuriated  by  their  self-appointed 
leaders,  would  soon  have  been  engaged  in  a  servile  war. 


JOHN   brown's    execution.  329 

short,  but  bloody  and  horrible  beyond  the  power  of  imag- 
ination to  conceive. 

Midnight  conflagrations,  the  violation  of  women,  the 
slaughter  of  children,  the  reign  for  a  time  of  unbridled 
lust,  of  a  revenge  kindled  as  with  the  fires  of  hell,  infu- 
riating alike  master  and  slave — these  must  have  been  the 
inevitable  consequences  of  a  brief  success  of  Brown's  pro- 
ject. A  few  hundred  slaves  might  have  escaped  into  the 
free  States,  and  landed  in  Canada  with  Brown  at  their 
head,  but  the  end  must  have  been  a  terrible  revenge  on 
every  black  participator  who,  by  force  or  persuasion,  or 
panic-fear,  joined  iii  the  rebellion.  Every  cross-road  in 
the  region  would  have  had  its  gibbet,  and  every  gibbet 
its  victim  ;  and  then,  as  the  expedient  of  safety,  would 
succeed  all  over  the  South  an  iron  rule  over  their  slaves 
compared  with  which  the  past  has  been  as  the  reign  of 
Liberty  itself.  Tens  of  thousands  of  distrusted  slaves 
would  have  been  hurried  off  to  the  sugar  and  rice  fields 
of  the  Gulf  States,  and  the  last  ray  of  hope  of  any  volun- 
tary mitigation  of  the  severities  of  the  system  would  have 
flickered  away  before  this  seeming  necessity. 

Fortunate  for  Virginia,  most  fortunate  for  the  slave, 
that  the  project  of  that  misguided  and  unfortunate  man 
was  nipped  in  the  bud.  This  harvest  of  mischief  would 
have  sprung  up  from  the  seed  sown,  just  as  surely  as  it 
had  ripened.  Could  Virginia  set  at  liberty  the  leader  of 
this  plot,  whose  only  dying  regret  was  the  failure  of  his 
attempt  ?  Could  she  afford  to  offer  the  bounty  of  impunity 
to  such  invasions  of  her  peace  ? 

Brown  has  averred  that  he  did  not  purpose  taking  life. 
Neither  does  the  midnight  burglar  who,  armed  to  the 
teeth,  enters  a  dwelling  for  no  other  purpose  than  plunder, 
yet  when  attacked  by  the  inmates  whom  his  invasion  has 
roused  to  resistance,  shoots  them  down  in  cold  blood. 
Yet  what  court  would  admit  his  plea  that  his  purpose  was 
22 


330  ADDRESSKS   AND    MISCKI.LANTES. 

not  murder?  But  Brown  was  honest.  He  believed  slave- 
holders to  be  outlaws,  and  he  was  therefore  entitled  to 
clemency.  So  was  Guy  Fawkes  honest,  and  Catesby,  and 
the  other  Catholic  conspirators  who  proposed  to  crush 
out  damnable  heresy,  and  restore  the  ascendancy  of  the 
Catholic  religion  in  England  by  blowing  up  the  house  of 
parliament  when  in  full  session,  thus  bur)'ing  the  "  out- 
law" Protestants  in  one  common  ruin. 

Yet  all  Protestant  Christendom  is  agreed  upon  the  jus- 
tice of  the  execution  of  the  principal  conspirators. 

Brown  is  not  the  only  brave  man  who  has  coolly  paid 
the  price  of  intercepted  treason,  nor  the  first  whom 
sympathizing  friends  have  crowned  with  the  martyr's 
wreath. 

Hume  says  of  Fawkes:  "Before  the  council  he  dis- 
played the  same  intrepid  firmness,  mixed  even  with  scorn 
and  disdain,  refusing  to  discover  his  accomplices,  and 
showing  no  concern  but  for  the  failure  of  his  enterprise." 
The  fear  of  threatened  torture  alone  cowed  him. 

And  of  Garnet,  one  of  the  conspirators,  he  says  :  "  The 
bigoted  Catholics  were  so  devoted  to  him  that  they  fancied 
miracles  to  be  wrought  by  his  blood,  and  in  Spain  he  was 
regarded  as  a  martyr." 

Bigotry,  fanaticism  and  consecration  to  a  great  cause 
will  never  want  martyrs,  and  martyrs  will  never  want 
pilgrims  to  their  shrines.  Many  men  of  the  North  will 
probably  beg  a  hair  of  John  Brown  for  memory, 

"  And,  dying,  mention  it  within  their  wills, 
Bequeathing  it,  as  a  rich  legacy, 
Unto  their  issue." 

But  all  right-judging  men,  whatever  may  be  their  sym- 
pathies over  the  fate  of  honest  but  misdirected  zeal,  will 
concur  in  the  justice  of  the  forfeiture  which  Brown  paid 
on  the  gallows. 


BROOKS-SUMNER   TRAGEDY.  33 1 


BROOKS-SUMNER  TRAGEDY. 

Speegh  at  a  Meeting  of  Citizens  ok  Buffalo,  called  to  Con- 
sider THE  Outrage,  held  June  2,  1856. 


Mr.  President  and  Fellow-Citizens: 

Nearly  two  thousand  years  ago,  was  enacted  a  scene 
of  blood  in  the  Roman  senate  made  gloriously  immortal 
because  enacted  in  defense  of  the  liberties  of  Rome. 

Twenty  centuries  afterwards,  in  a  republican  senate 
chamber,  in  the  capitol  of  a  nation  of  twenty-five  mill- 
ions of  freemen,  the  moral  value  of  whose  government 
is  to  be  found  in  its  defense  of  free  thought  and  free 
speech,  there  has  been  enacted  another  scene  of  blood 
which,  from  its  circumstances  of  infamy,  has  secured 
immortality  to  an  assassin  who  had  otherwise  rotted  in 
scornful  oblivion. 

If  in  his  ruffian  purpose  and  act  he  thought  of  Brutus, 
he  thought  of  him  as  the  skulking  hyena  thinks  of  the 
lion  from  whose  carcass  he  would  strip  the  skin,  and,  en- 
veloped in  it,  turn  to  prowling  about  dead  men's  graves. 
Brutus  and  Brooks !  henceforth  both  are  immortal,  for 
the  Carolina  assassin  is  as  certain  of  the  lasting  renown 
due  to  his  infamy,  as  if  he  were  impaled  a  fixed  blackness 
on  the  sky,  expanded  to  the  magnitude  of  a  hundred  suns, 
for  the  scorn  of  after  ages.  But  with  their  immortality 
and  the  scene  of  their  tragedies  the  parallel  ends. 

But,  sir,  of  the  victim.  It  was  not  Charles  Sumner 
alone  who  fell  by  the  ruffian  blow.     It  was  not  the  blood 


332  ADDKKSSKS   AND    MISCKLI.ANIKS. 

of  Charles  Sunnier  alone  that  crimsoned  that  au^aist 
chamber.  Then  fell  with  him  every  free-spoken  American 
citizen. 

"  Then  you,  and  I,  and  all  of  us  fell  down 
While  bloody  treason  flourished  over  us." 

The  t^enius  of  the  North,  too,  was  stricken  down  by  that 
blow.  But  thanks  be  to  God  for  that  elastic  eneri^y,  that 
recuperative  force  which  belongs  ever  to  freedom,  and 
which  in  this  crisis  gives  it  the  concentrated  power  of 
united  millions. 

Since  the  world  was — in  view  of  the  age  in  which  we 
live,  of  the  civilization  of  which  we  boast,  of  the  cour- 
tesies and  sweet  charities  of  life,  which  are  indeed  "  the 
cheap  defense  of  nations,"  and  which  should  distinguish 
all  human  relations,  which  permit  men  to  differ  and  be 
friends — above  all,  in  view  of  the  influences  of  that  Chris- 
tian religion  which,  if  we  do  not  profess,  we  honor,  and 
which  has  given  manners  and  propriety  to  modern  men 
and  to  modern  assemblies — no  one  act  of  atrocity,  save 
that  which  gave  Barabbas  his  liberty,  parallels  that  which 
has  called  us  together.  In  any  other  day  than  the  present, 
when  so  many  restraints  are  thrown  around  society  and 
the  law  is  left  to  vindicate  itself,  the  cowardly  Brooks 
would  have  a  thousand  times  met  the  assassin's  fate,  and 
long  ere  this  *'  fatted  all  the  region  kites  with  his  offal." 
But  I  have  spent  too  much  time  already  with  the  man. 
I  will  look  a  moment  at  the  surroundings  and  consequents. 

What  is  it  that  has  aroused  the  free  men  of  the  North  ; 
that  has  stirred  up  the  most  determined  conservatism 
from  its  lowest  depths  of  stagnation,  mingling  the  dead 
sea  with  the  stormiest  waters,  crest  to  crest  ?  Not  alone 
because  Senator  Sumner  was  felled  by  a  cowardly  hand 
for  words  spoken  in  debate.  I  will  tell  the  South  the  rea- 
son.    Because  this  act  is  commended,  justified,  rewarded 


BROOKS-SUMNER   TRAGEDY.  333 

by  the  exponents  of  Southern  opinion  and  interests. 
Nay,  more,  held  up  for  imitation  and  rivahy! 

One  journal  calls  it  "  Classic,"  and  finds  no  bounds  for 
its  admiration.  Another,  the  Richmond  Whig,  once 
honored  for  its  ability  and  character,  not  only  justifies 
but  incites  the  South  to  purge  the  senate  of  men  holding 
and  expressing  views  adverse  to  their  own,  and  even 
names  a  New  York  senator  as  the  next  and  the  meetest 
victim  ! 

It  is  well  known  that  I  have  not  sympathized  with 
Senator  Seward's  extreme  anti-slavery  views  and  action. 
More,  sir,  that  I  cast  my  vote  for  another  than  him  for 
the  office  he  now  holds,  when  my  vote  was  worth  some- 
thing as  your  representative  in  the  senate.  I  did  then, 
and  do  now,  appreciate  his  ability,  his  industry,  and  the 
scholarly  grace  which  have  placed  him  in  the  front  rank 
of  the  gifted  men  of  New  York,  but  I  did  not  concur 
with  his  views  of  policy  on  the  subject  which  is  now 
shaking  the  pillars  of  this  government.  But  I  now  say 
to  the  Richmond  ]]7iig — I  say  to  the  "  cane  committee  " 
of  South  Carolina — I  say  to  the  justifying  senators — I  say 
to  the  slave  interest,  whose  constitutional  rights  have 
ever  found  a  defender  in  me,  that  the  day  that  sees  the 
Sumner  tragedy  re-enacted — the  day  on  which  the  blood 
of  a  senator  of  New  York,  whoever  he  may  be,  is  shed 
in  the  senate  chamber,  or  out  of  it,  for  words  spoken  in 
debate,  and  shed  as  Sumner's  blood  was  shed,  with 
approbation  by  that  interest,  will  be  the  saddest  day  for 
fifteen  States,  and  perhaps  for  thirty-one,  ever  woven  in 
the  loom  of  the  centuries.  Generations  then  unborn  will 
wail  because  of  it.  In  the  language  of  Job  they  will 
say : 

Let  that  day  be  darkness,  let  not  God  regard  it  from  above, 
neither  let  the  light  shine  upon  it. 


334  ADDRKSSES   AND    MISCKLLANIES. 

Do  the)'  think  us  stocks  and  stones?  Sucli  wrongs 
would  make  the  very  stones  cr)'  out,  not  for  justice,  but 
for  what  is  sweeter  to  man  when  pressed  bej'ond  the 
point  of  nature  to  endure — for  rciwHi^r.  Let  them  try 
it  and  see  if  they  will  find  their  heels  upon  our  necks. 

The  liistory  of  Samson  is  the  history  of  outraged  man 
all  over  the  globe.  Let  our  senator's  blood  be  so  shed, 
and  the  fate  of  the  sportsmen  may  be  read  in  the  six- 
teenth chapter  of  Judges: 

And  Samson  took  hold  of  the  two  middle  pillars  upon 
which  the  house  stood,  and  on  which  it  was  borne  up,  of  the 
one  with  his  right  hand,  and  the  other  with  his  left.  And 
Samson  said  let  me  die  with  the  Philistines.  And  he  bowed 
himself  with  all  his  might,  and  the  house  fell  upon  the  lords 
and  upon  all  the  people  that  were  therein. 

That  portion  of  the  South  who  purpose  to  subjugate 
us  by  assassination  and  murder,  exhibit  the  pitiable  weak- 
ness of  the  Philistines.  If  brought  for  their  sport  before 
their  Dagon,  as  proposed,  I  tell  them  she  will  imitate 
Samson.  She  must  be  more  or  less  than  human  if  she 
did  not.  Their  Dagon  Temple  rests,  like  that  of  the 
Philistines,  on  two  middle  pillars.  They  are  the  Union 
and  the  Constitution.  Let  the  South  beware  the  day — 
God  grant  it  may  never  dawn — when  she  brings  New 
York  to  bow  herself  "  with  all  her  might  "  between  the 
two  pillars ! 

It  is  a  fearful  truth,  that  the  outrage  which  has  sum- 
moned us  here  has  done  more  to  weaken  the  bonds  of 
empire  than  all  the  agitation  produced  by  conflicting 
opinions  has  ever  accomplished.  The  State  of  New  York 
is  not  in  a  flame  of  passion,  but  she  is  at  the  earnest 
white  heat  which  defies  all  danger,  and  holds  life  and 
death  in  equal  poise.  She  looks  not  at  consequences 
when   her  honor   is   assailed.     And   she   hurls   back  with 


BROOKS-SUMNER   TRAGEDY.  335 

scorn  and  defiance  the  threat  that  she  too  is  to  fall  by 
ruffian  hand  in  the  person  of  her  senator. 

Sir,  what  principle  is  contended  for  by  the  justificrs  of 
this  outrage  ?  Simply  this,  that  Northern  representatives, 
upon  questions  connected  with  slavery,  must  speak  what 
is  agreeable  to  certain  Southern  ears,  their  thoughts  must 
be  submitted  to  a  Southern  gauge,  and  their  words  be 
subjected  to  a  Southern  censorship  before  utterance. 
And  this,  if  omitted,  is  at  peril  of  life  and  limb.  A 
South  Carolina  impriuiatur  must  be  found  on  the  cover 
of  every  congressional  speech,  or  the  stiletto  and  the 
bludgeon  will  punish  the  temerity  of  free  men.  By  this 
permission  we  may  live.  Under  the  legs  of  this  Carolina 
Colossus  we  may  peep  about  to  find  ourselves  dishonora- 
ble graves.  If  this  is  to  be  the  prife  of  union,  it  is  too 
great.  It  cannot  be  paid.  There  is  not  forbearance 
enough,  there  is  not  fraternal  charity  enough,  and  there 
never  ought  to  be,  in  the  moral  exchequer  of  the  North, 
to  pay  any  such  price.  There  is  self-respect  enough, 
there  is  manhood  that  dares  to  die  ;  enough,  yes,  more 
than  enough,  to  refuse  to  pay  such  a  price  for  any  com- 
pact made  for  social  or  political  relations. 

There  is  another  most  mortifying  feature  in  this  case. 
It  is  the  action  of  the  senate,  at  whose  very  heart  the 
dagger  has  been  plunged.  The  committee  of  investiga- 
tion report  that  the  senate  has  no  power  in  the  premises  ! 
They  see  a  member  of  their  body  struck  down  in  his  seat 
for  words  spoken  in  debate.  They  see  the  whole  body 
degraded  and  outraged  by  one  who  turns  the  senate 
chamber  into  an  assassin's  hall  for  the  dance  of  Death, 
and  has  no  word  either  of  rebuke  of  the  outrage  or  of 
vindication  of  its  privilege  ! 

The  skulking  assassin  may  burrow  under  the  speaker's 
chair    until    the    opportunity    arrives    to    rush    upon    his 


336  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

defenseless  victim.  He  may  shed  his  heart's  blood  before 
their  senatorial  eyes — and  that,  too,  for  words  spoken  in 
debate — and  the  senate  is  impotent!  If  this  be  so,  the 
Alpine  passes  in  the  middle  a^es  and  the  Ilounslow 
Heath  of  the  seventeenth  century  were  as  secure  as  the 
senate  chamber.  The  subject  is  too  sickening  for  com- 
ment. The  country  now  awaits  the  action  of  the  other 
house.  There  is  but  one  thing  it  can  do — less  it  cannot 
do  and  maintain  the  respect  of  the  country — purge  itself 
of  this  violator  of  all  that  is  sacred  in  personal  honor 
and  in  national  glory.  I  hesitate  not  to  say,  that  New 
York  expects  every  representative  of  hers  to  vote  for  the 
expulsion  of  Brooks.  She  will  hold  any  member  who 
does  less,  a  partaker  of  his  guilt,  a  sharer  in  his  degrada- 
tion. No  casuistry  can  avoid  this  result ;  he  is  a  fool  who 
shall  seek  to  experiment  on  the  public  forbearance. 

Sir,  I  rejoice  to  know  that  the  press  to  which  I  have 
alluded,  and  the  men  to  whom  I  have  alluded,  have  not 
the  sympathies  of  the  entire  press  or  men  of  the  South. 
A  Southern  divine  said  to  me,  in  reply  to  my  interroga- 
tory what  he  thought  of  the  Sumner  tragedy,  "  That 
cowardly  Brooks  should  be  shot  down  like  a  dog."  Such 
are  the  sentiments  of  many  of  our  Southern  brethren, 
and  we  ask  them  to  vindicate  these  sentiments  by  act  as 
well  as  by  speech. 

Mr,  President,  I  have  done.  If  I  have  spoken  warmly, 
it  is  because  the  subject  does  not  permit  of  cold  and 
measured  thought.  I  would  have  it  understood  here  and 
elsewhere,  that  New  York  is  a  unit  in  its  defense  of  free 
speech;  that  she  knows  her  own  rights,  and  knowing  will 
maintain  them. 


THE    MISSOURI   COMPROMISE.  337 


THE    MISSOURI    COMPROMISE. 

Speech  delivkred  in  the  Senate  of  New  York  on  the   Nebraska 
Resolutions,  February  3,  1854. 


Mr.  President  : 

I  do  not  think  the  introduction  of  this  subject  untimely, 
and  legislative  action  unnecessary.  I  think  the  State  of 
New  York  would  be  false  to  herself,  false  to  her  legisla- 
tion, when  Missouri  asked  admission  into  the  Union,  if 
she  did  not  now,  thirty-four  years  after  that  action,  when 
all  good  faith  is  to  be  violated,  if  she  did  not  rebuke  this 
project  of  the  senator  from  Illinois.  I  am  unwilling  to 
have  these  resolutions  disposed  of  upon  a  silent  vote. 

Let  us  look  for  a  moment  at  the  basis  of  the  union  of 
these  States.  All  free  government  is  the  result  of  mutual 
compromise.  The  government  under  which  we  live  has 
no  other  original  basis.  The  convention  at  Philadelphia 
which  framed  the  constitution  of  the  United  States, 
represented  the  most  extreme  views,  and  the  most  antag- 
onistic interests  of  the  several  States.  Of  all  questions 
which  patriotism  was  there  called  upon  to  settle,  none 
more  threateningly  menaced  the  objects  of  the  convention 
than  that  of  slavery.  At  the  South,  slavery  had  incor- 
porated itself  into  all  the  relations  of  society.  The  char- 
acter of  Southern  climate  and  products  had  stimulated 
this  vigorous  growth.  While  it  had  a  nominal  existence 
at  the  North,  it  had  no  such  relations  to  northern  capital 
or    industry    as     promised     permanency    to    the    system. 


338  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

Hence  arose  the  connictins^  political  and  moral  views  in 
the  convention  on  this  question. 

After  months  of  discussion,  and  of  patriotic  labor  and 
sacrifice,  their  work  was  accomplished,  the  constitution 
presented  to  the  States.  In  the  language  of  Washington, 
it  was  framed  in  the  spirit  of  "  amity  and  compromise." 

The  South  consented  to  the  partnership,  provided  she 
could  be  protected  in  her  slave  property  by  the  restora- 
tion of  her  fugitive  slaves.  She  also  insisted  upon  a  rep- 
resentation of  her  slave  property  in  congress.  Although 
the  moral  sense  of  the  North  was  against  it,  she  yielded 
to  the  first  demand ;  and  she  granted  the  second  for  an 
equivalent  in  the  matter  of  taxation.  These  questions  at 
rest,  the  constitution  was  presented  to  the  States  for 
ratification.  Here  ensued  another,  and  for  a  long  time 
doubtful,  struggle.  But  at  length  the  last  State  gave  its 
adhesion,  and  then  arose  this  government  in  its  own 
proper  beauty  and  strength,  to  take  its  place  among  the 
powers  of  the  earth. 

The  Northern  Atlantic  States  were  commercial  States ; 
commerce,  everywhere  a  leading  and  controlling  element, 
ever  has  been,  and  ever  will  be,  aggressive.  And  when 
united  to  it  are  the  higher  elements  of  civilization,  it 
elevates  where  it  subdues,  and  becomes  the  advance- 
guard  of  the  institutions  of  Christianity. 

The  commercial  spirit  early  discovered  the  importance 
of  controlling  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  out- 
let to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Mr.  Jefferson,  with  a  clear 
prescience  of  his  country's  future,  appreciated  the  same 
necessity.  He  opened  the  negotiation  with  France  which 
resulted  in  the  treaty  of  1803,  which  secured  to  the 
United  States  the  territory  of  Louisiana.  In  1804 
Louisiana,  in  pursuance  of  the  treaty,  was  erected  into 
two  territories,  and    the  act    so  organizing    the  territory 


THE    MISSOURI    COMPROMISE.  339 

made  many  restrictions  upon  the  slave  traffic.  In  due 
time  Louisiana  proper  was  admitted  as  a  State,  and  of 
necessity  and  without  objection,  as  a  slave  State.  So 
matters  rested  until  i8i9-'20,  when  arose  that  storm 
whose  angry  blasts  still  linger  in  our  ears.  Missouri 
knocked  at  the  door  of  the  Union  and  asked  equal  privi- 
leges with  the  other  States.  A  part  of  the  territory 
ceded  by  France  in  1803,  and  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase, 
she  was  ready  to  enter  the  sisterhood  of  States.  Let 
us  briefly  review^  the  history  of  that  contest.  Let  us  see 
the  part  acted  by  New  York  in  that  controversy,  and  we 
shall  be  the  better  prepared  to  meet  the  argument  of 
Senator  Douglas.  Missouri  asked  to  come  in  as  a  slave 
State.  The  Southern  States  insisted  upon  her  admission 
as  a  matter  of  right.  The  Northern  States  conceded  the 
propriety  of  her  admission  as  a  free  State,  but  denied  the 
right  she  claimed  to  enter  as  a  slave  State.  At  the  same 
time  the  State  of  Maine,  from  the  northern  Atlantic  coast, 
urged  her  claim  to  admission  into  the  Union.  Her  right 
was  unquestioned,  but  the  Southern  States  sought  to 
authorize  the  admission  of  the  two  States  by  one  act,  for 
the  purpose  of  securing  the  admission  of  Missouri  with 
slavery.  Such  an  act  passed  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States.  The  house  of  representatives  refused  to  concur, 
and  Maine  was  admitted  by  a  separate  and  independent 
act.  Then  the  controversy  was  narrowed  down  to  the 
admission  of  Missouri,  and  a  great  part  of  that  angry 
discussion  arose  upon  two  amendments  to  the  bill  author- 
izing the  unqualified  admission  of  Missouri,  or  amend- 
ments similar  to  them,  introduced  by  two  representatives 
from  New  York.  Mr.  Taylor  of  this  State  introduced 
an  amendment  to  the  act  admitting  Missouri,  prohibitory 
of  slavery  in  the  State.  Mr.  Storrs  of  New  York  in- 
troduced another  amendment  which    contains    the    prin- 


340  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

ciplc  of  the  ultimate  compromise,  and  is  in  the  following 
language : 

That  in  all  that  tract  of  country  ceded  by  France  to  the 
United  States,  under  the  name  of  Louisiana,  which  lies  north 
of  thirty-six  degrees  and  thirty  minutes  north  latitude,  except- 
ing only  such  part  thereof  as  is  included  within  the  limits  of 
the  State  contemplated  by  this  act,  there  shall  be  neither 
slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude,  otherwise  than  in  the  punish- 
ment of  crimes  whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly 
convicted. 

It  also  provided  for  the  surrender  of  fugitive  slaves. 
Pending  the  debate  upon  the  several  amendments  raged 
that  storm  which  threatened  the  very  existence  of  the 
government.  It  was  of  this  fearful  conflict  that  Mr. 
Jefferson  said  it  was  "the  most  portentous  that  ever 
threatened  the  Union  ;  that  in  the  gloomiest  moment  of 
the  revolutionary  war  he  never  had  any  apprehensions 
equal  to  that  he  felt  from  that  controversy."  It  was  in 
the  midst  of  this  conflict  of  opinion  and  passion  that  the 
"great  pacificator,"  Mr.  Clay,  invoked  that  principle 
which  lies  at  the  basis  of  all  social  and  political  organ- 
ization. He  called  upon  the  country  to  make  another 
sacrifice  upon  the  altar  of  patriotism.  He  invoked  the 
North  to  quiet  the  South  by  admitting  Missouri  without 
restriction.  He  invoked  the  South  to  yield  to  the  North 
by  surrendering  forever  the  territory  acquired  from 
France,  and  lying  north  of  thirty-six  degrees  and  thirty 
minutes,  to  freedom.  A  patriotism  which  this  age  may 
well  imitate  responded  to  the  call.  The  principle  of  the 
amendment  proposed  by  New  York  through  Mr.  Storrs 
was  adopted.  Missouri  became  a  State,  with  slavery,  but 
upon  a  consideration,  upon  a  solemn  pledge,  emphatic  and 
irrevocable ;  solemn  as  plighted  faith  could  make  it, 
positive    as    enactments    could    decree    it,    that    slavery 


THE    MISSOURI    COMPROMISE.  34I 

sliould  be  forever  excluded  north  of  thirty-six  degrees 
thirt)'  minutes,  from  the  Louisiana  Purchase. 

After  the  admission  of  Missouri,  Arkansas  came  into 
the  Union  with  slavery.  She  was  entitled  to  admission 
under  the  Compromise  of  1 820.  The  North  acquiesced, 
in  good  faith  paid  the  bond.  The  country  has  long 
regarded  that  question  at  rest,  not  a  rest  for  a  generation 
or  a  century,  but  a  final  and  eternal  rest.  Let  me  recur 
a  moment  to  the  action  of  the  Legislature  of  New  York, 
pending"  this  controversy.  On  the  twentieth  of  January, 
1820,  and  while  the  controversy  was  the  most  violent,  her 
legislature  passed  a  preamble  and  resolution  instructing 
their  representatives  in  congress  "  to  oppose  the  admission 
as  a  State  into  the  Union  of  any  territory  not  comprised 
within  the  original  boundary  of  the  United  States,  with- 
out making  the  prohibition  of  slavery  therein  an  indis- 
pensable condition  of  admission .'' 

This  was  the  position  of  New  York,  and  she  would 
have  resisted  to  this  day  but  for  a  compromise  which 
surrendered  a  controverted  right  for  a  forever  conceded 
advantage.  There  were  within  the  then  unknow^n  future 
of  the  controverted  territory,  four  States.  New  York, 
with  the  other  free  States,  insisted  that  all  of  them  should 
come  in  with  the  slavery  prohibition  ;  the  South  resisted 
the  demand.  It  was  adjusted  by  yielding  Missouri  and 
Arkansas  to  slavery,  and  Nebraska  and  Kansas,  then 
undeveloped  and  unchristened,  to  freedom.  Such  was 
the  bond.  New  York  has  discharged  her  part  of  the 
obligation;  will  the  South  discharge  hers?  It  is  a  ques- 
tion vital  as  the  existence  of  the  Union. 

But  the  Nebraska  bill,  alluded  to  in  the  resolutions, 
declares  the  prohibition  of  slavery  in  the  Compromise  of 
1820  to  be  inoperative,  and  to  be  repealed  by  the  Com- 


342  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

promise  measures  of  1850.  Tliis  is  a  proposition  easily 
stated. 

The  Compromise  of  1820  stood  isolated  from  every 
other  relation  then  present  or  future.  It  related  solely  to 
the  territory  acquired  frojn  France,  and  known  as  the 
Louisiana  Purchase.  It  might  possibly  have  some  bearing 
upon  the  permission  of  slavery  in  subsequently  acquired 
territory  south  of  thirty-six  degrees  thirty  minutes.  But 
if  so,  it  would  with  equal  force  exclude  slavery  north  of 
that  line. 

The  Compromise  of  1850  was  independent  of  all  past 
compromises,  and  entirely  original  in  all  its  bearings  and 
relations.     Let  us  examine  its  history. 

The  acquisition  of  our  territory  from  Mexico  was  the 
result  of  a  national  war,  and,  whatever  may  have  been  the 
ethics  of  that  contest,  I  regard  that  acquisition  as  the 
natural  result  of  our  institutions.  Had  we  not  acquired 
it  whe)i  we  did  and  as  we  did,  its  acquisition  at  some  time 
and  in  some  manner  was  one  of  the  facts  of  our  destiny. 
So  certain  as  the  weaker  yields  before  the  stronger,  so 
certain  as  an  inferior  society  yields  before  the  superior 
power  of  a  higher  civilization,  so  certain  as  a  keen-scented, 
earnest,  grasping  commercial  spirit  will  overcome  the 
indolent  or  effete  systems  that  oppose  its  progress,  just  so 
certain  was  the  star  of  our  empire  to  "  westward  take  its 
way,"  until  it  should  mirror  itself  in  the  calm  waters  of 
the  Pacific. 

Our  Mexican  territory  was  acquired  by  treaty  and  be- 
came national  domain.  Before  we  were  fairly  recovered 
from  our  surprise  over  so  stupendous  results,  California 
knocked  at  the  door  of  the  Union  with  a  free  constitu- 
tion, and  demanded  admission  to  the  sisterhood  of  States. 
The  South  was  disappointed,  she  felt  that  the  balance  of 


THE   MISSOURI   COMPROMISE.  343 

power  was  departing  from  her.  She  said  she  had  con- 
tributed her  money  and  her  men  to  secure  this  territory, 
and  she  insisted  that  the  flag  of  the  country  should  pro- 
tect her  property  in  all  its  forms  on  every  inch  of  this  new 
national  domain.  The  history  of  that  contest  which 
threatened,  as  I  then  believed,  and  now  believe,  the  very 
existence  of  the  republic,  is  fresh  in  our  memories.  Amid 
most  stormy  controversy  and  most  dissentient  opinions, 
the  compromise  measures  relating  solely  to  the  territory 
acquired  from  Mexico,  became  fixed  laws  and  institu- 
tions. If  for  the  sake  of  a  natural  boundary  a  fragment 
was  excluded  from  the  Louisiana  territory,  it  was  not  of 
consequence  enough  to  change  the  principle. 

The  positions  taken  by  Senator  Douglas  are  involved  in 
two  propositions.  First,  that  these  measures  repealed  the 
Compromise  of  1820.  Second,  that  they  were  the  adop- 
tion of  a  new  policy  and  doctrine,  to  wit:  that  any  State 
has  a  right  to  demand  admission  into  the  Union,  with  or 
without  slavery,  irrespective  of  the  location  of  its  territory 
or  the  manner  of  its  acquisition. 

I  shared  the  sentiments  of  those  Northern  statesmen 
who  in  1850  were  instrumental  in  bringing  about  that 
compromise.  I  closely  watched  and  personally  listened 
to^uch  of  the  debates  in  congress  during  that  angry  dis- 
cussion, and  not  a  syllable  ever  reached  my  eye  or  my  ear 
sanctioning  these  alarming  propositions.  Is  the  Missouri 
Compromise  repealed  in  terms?  Is  it  in  spirit?  Was  it 
claimed  in  any  speech  of  any  member  of  congress,  North 
or  South?  No,  sir,  that  compromise  stood  alone,  on  its 
own  basis,  and  forever  inviolable.  The  senator  from  Illi- 
nois declares  that  those  magic  words,  "  The  people  of  the 
United  States  do  enact,"  etc.,  were  more  than  creative. 
That  they  not  only  made  a  new  compromise  in  relation  to 
new  territory  freshly  acquired,  but   destroyed   an   adjust- 


344  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

ment  in  relation  to  the  Louisiana  I'urchase  which  \vc 
had  held  for  nearly  half  a  century,  and  under  which  the 
country  had  reposed  in  confidence  for  thirty  }'ears.  Sir, 
this  proposition  is  utterl)-  unsustained.  The  compromise 
measures  of  1850  were  not  destructive.  They  constituted 
a  new  bond,  a  new  cojupact,  in  its  moral  force,  between  the 
free  and  the  slave  States,  in  relation  to  matters  wholly 
independent. 

The  acts  that  affixed  the  seal  to  this  new  bond,  did  not 
raze  the  seal  from  the  old  one.  They  left  it  untouched  in 
letter  and  spirit.  It  is  there,  sir.  Words  cannot  rail  it  off, 
casuistry  cannot  argue  it  away.  To  override  it  in  the 
manner  proposed  by  the  Nebraska  bill,  would  be  sub- 
versive of  all  good  faith,  and  good  faith  underlies  the 
foundation  of  republican  empire.  Your  most  solemn 
enactments  are  but  idle  parchment  and  a  mockery,  under 
such  construction. 

But  it  is  argued  that  the  Compromise  of  1820  was  but  a 
law,  and  may  be  repealed  as  any  other  law.  I  grant  this 
to  be  its  mere  legal  relation.  I  do  not  claim  for  it  that  it 
is  technically  a  treaty,  or  a  compact,  or  a  constitutional 
provision,  but  I  contend  that  in  spirit  and  of  right  it  has 
the  binding  force  of  them  all.  While  in  form  it  was  but  a 
law,  it  was  in  fact  a  treaty,  or  a  compact  by  which  ^he 
slave  States,  in  consideration  of  the  admission  of  Missouri 
with  slavery,  solemnly  agreed  that  the  territory  north  of 
thirty-six  degrees  and  thirty  minutes  should  be  forever 
free.  Can  the  South  take  and  keep  what  we  parted  with, 
and  now  refuse  the  price,  without  consent  of  the  other 
contracting  party?  Can  she  now  say  that  a  second  com- 
promise destroys  the  first  ?  What  will  she  say  of  a  third 
compromise — that  it  destroyed  the  second?  If  this  be 
the  rule,  the  fewer  compromises  w^e  make  the  better ;  and 
I  apprehend  this  would  be  more  than  conviction  with  the 
North. 


THE    MISSOURI    COMPROMISE.  345 

That  this  was  a  compact  was  the  view  of  all  the  states- 
men and  political  writers  of  that  time.  I  find  that  the 
editor  of  N^ilcs'  Register,  than  whom  few  men  were  more 
accurate  observers  of  political  events, -spoke  of  it  as  hav- 
ing the  binding  moral  force  of  a  constitutional  provision. 
I  read,  sir,  from  Niles  Register  of  March  11,  1820,  from  an 
article  entitled  "The  Slave  Question,"  in  which  he  says: 

It  is  true  the  compromise  is  supported  only  by  the  letter  of 
a  law,  repealable  by  the  authority  which  enacted  it,  but  the 
circumstances  of  the  case  give  to  this  law  a  moral  force,  equal 
to  that  of  a  positive  provision  of  the  constitution,  and  we  do 
not  hazard  anything  by  saying,  that  the  constitution  exists  in 
its  observance. 

This  view  met  the  written  approval  of  the  most  eminent 
statesmen  of  that  time. 

This  reasoning  of  the  Illinois  senator,  interpolates  a 
fraud  into  the  record.  Who  believes  that  the  measures  of 
1850  could  ever  have  been  passed,  if  they  had  contained 
in  so  many  words  a  repeal  of  the  Compromise  of  1820? 
If,  in  addition  to  what  they  gave  the  South,  they  had  also 
declared  that  what  was  given  to  the  North  in  1820,  and 
which  alone  calmed  the  storm  that  threatened  to  over- 
whelm us,  was  to  be  transferred  to  slavery?  That  that 
bargain  was  to  be  canceled,  and  that  too  without  the 
shadow  of  an  equivalent.  The  proposition  would  have 
been  trampled  under  the  feet  of  an  indignant  people, 
with  scorn  and  defiance.  A  bargain  is  a  bargain,  and 
because  it  is  such,  I,  with  multitudes  of  conservative  men 
at  the  North,  conceded  to  the  South  her  fugitive  slave 
act,  in  1850.  Let  her  beware  how  she  forfeits  our  con- 
fidence in  a  good  faith,  which  must  be  reciprocal,  or  bind 
nobod}'. 

But  there  is  another  proposition  more  startling,  if 
possible,  than  that  I  have  noticed.  It  is  that  the 
23 


346  ai)I)ressp:s  and  miscellanies. 

measures  of  1850  engrafted  a  new  polic}'  upon  tlie  gov- 
ernment. Tliat  it  relinquished  all  claim  or  right  on  the 
part  of  congress  to  regulate  slavery  in  the  territories,  or 
give  qualified  admission  to  new  States  into  the  Union, 
come  they  from  where  they  may.  If  this  be  true,  the 
followers  of  the  Veiled  Prophet  were  not  more  "  dupes 
and  victims  "  than  we,  who  sustained  the  Compromise  of 
1850.  Because  we  acquiesced  in  granting  to  the  South, 
nay,  insisted  that  there  should  be  granted  her,  her  con- 
stitutional rights;  because,  in  addition,  we  were  willing 
to  yield  something  in  the  "spirit  of  amity,"  and  that 
something  expressly  "  nominated  in  the  bond,"  did  we 
yield  everything?  Did  we  turn  propagandists  of  her 
institutions?  From  the  organization  of  the  government 
there  has  been  but  one  opinion  at  the  North,  and 
hardly  a  divided  one  at  the  South,  that  slavery  was  an 
evil.  That  it  degraded  labor,  that  it  weakened  the 
strength  of  States,  and  aside  from  its  moral  considera- 
tions, of  which  I  do  not  speak,  was  upon  great  prin- 
ciples of  public  policy,  to  be  kept  within  its  original 
limits.  This  was  the  policy  of  the  government,  and  it 
has  been  waived  only  under  circumstances  when  conces- 
sion seemed  to  be  duty.  To  this  we  trace  the  action  of 
the  States  in  relation  to  the  northwestern  territory,  and 
of  congress  in  relation  to  the  Louisiana  Purchase.  In 
this  we  have  but  followed  the  enlightened  sentiments  of 
all  nations.  Suppose  the  result  claimed  by  the  senator 
from  Illinois  did  not  arise  from  the  unseen  magic  of  the 
measures  of  1850,  but  from  express  enactment,  what 
reason  could  be  given  for  overthrowing  this  long-settled 
policy?  Did  our  fathers,  and  have  we  mistaken  the  effects 
of  slavery  upon  society?  Does  it  really  elevate  labor; 
does  it  dignify  States ;  does  it  tend  to  develop  the  highest 
elements  of  a  people,  to  have   this   institution   in   their 


THE    MISSOURI    COMPROMISE.  347 

midst  ?  Were  our  fathers  in  error,  when  by  positive  act 
they  prohibited  it  from  Ohio,  Indiana  and  Illinois?  Was 
it  a  mistake  on  the  part  of  our  own  State,  that  we  abol- 
islied  it  years  ago  ?     No,  sir  ;  no,  sir ! 

The  reason  for  this  policy  grows  more  potent  with  every 
rising  sun.  The  proposition,  if  true,  sends  us  back  to  the 
dark  ages  of  public  opinion.  Let  me  not  be  misunder- 
stood in  this  connection.  I  have  entertained  extreme 
conservative  sentiments  on  the  subject  of  slavery.  My 
action  now  does  not  rest  upon  the  humanity  or  the  legal- 
ities of  the  relation  of  master  and  slave.  Of  these  I  now 
say  nothing ;  I  look  at  the  results  of  the  system  ;  results 
to  the  superior  race  ;  to  its  influence  on  progress,  and  on 
the  institutions  which  give  grace,  utility  and  power  to 
human  societies.  In  view  of  this,  I  say,  the  policy  should 
not  be  abandoned  of  keeping  slavery  within  its  limits, 
except  under  circumstances  like  those  which  have  two  or 
three  times  occurred  since  the  formation  of  the  govern- 
ment, and  which  can  hardly  again  arise.  Its  abandon- 
ment will  not  be  conceded  through  a  falsified  record. 
No,  sir;  the  North,  I  trust,  will  ever  adhere  to  the  com- 
promises of  the  constitution,  and  to  all  other  compromises 
which  patriotism,  amid  conflicting  but  honest  opinion,  has 
been  called  to  make  ;  but  beyond  this  she  must  not  be 
pressed  to  go.  She  is  asked  to  keep  the  compact  in  good 
faith  ;  let  it  be  reciprocal,  and  she  will  keep  it. 

Sir,  I  distrust  the  source  whence  this  Nebraska  bill 
emanates.  I  say  to  the  South  she  should  fear  the  Greeks 
offering  gifts.  It  comes  from  a  presidential  adventurer, 
who,  in  the  last  national  democratic  convention  received 
fewer  votes  than  he  expected,  more  than  he  deserved, 
fortunatel)'  for  the  country  not  enough  to  secure  his  end. 
It  comes  from  the  peculiar  representative  of  "  Young 
America,"  who    hold    nothing    sacred    in    the    past,   who 


348  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

oppose  on  [MMiiciplc  or  passion  all  conservatism,  and  run 
rampant  over  all  institutions  which  interpose  barriers  to 
the  attainment  of  their  ends.  I  feel  it  my  duty  to  do 
■what  my  predecessor  in  1820  did,  and  oppose  this  prefei- 
dcnt-huntiuL;-  ambition.  I  trust  to  "  o'erleap  itself."  He 
voted  instructions,  thirty-four  years  ago,  to  our  represent- 
atives, to  oppose  the  admission  of  Missouri  as  a  slave 
State.  New  York  consented  to  that  admission  upon  a 
solemn  compact.  That  compact  it  is  now  proposed  to 
violate,  and  that  not  in  a  bold,  manly  way,  but  through  a 
fraud  and  a  cheat  I  If  I  could  reach  the  ear  of  the  South, 
I  would  tell  her  that  it  is  dangerous  to  accept  this  gift, 
that  the  honest  convictions  of  many  Northern  men  deemed 
the  compromises  of  1850  just  and  proper,  and  called  for  by 
the  exigencies  of  the  times,  affording  a  protection  to  the 
institution  of  slavery  beyond  which  it  was  not  safe  to  pass. 
I  would  say  to  her,  we  are  a  conservative  people  and  a 
reasoning  people,  but  we  have  also  instincts.  Reason  is 
slow  and  calculating.  Instinct  is  not  slow,  but  rapid  as 
the  lightning,  and  consuming  as  the  fires  it  kindles. 


LECOMPTON   (KANSAS)   CONSTITUTION.  349 


LECOMPTON  (KANSAS)  CONSTITUTION. 

Speech  at  the  American  and  Republican  Anti-Lecompton  Mass 
Meeting,  held  in  Buffalo,  May  27,  1858. 


On  the  gates  of  Busyrane  was  inscribed,  on  the  first, 
"  Be  bold,"  on  the  second,  "  Be  bold,  be  bold,  evermore 
be  bold,"  and  on  the  third  gate,  "  Be  not  too  bold." 

The  democratic  party  has  adopted  all  these  maxims 
save  the  last.  Boldness  that  shrinks  from  no  purpose  of 
its  ambition,  boldness  that  levels  every  Alpine  height 
which  constitutions  and  bills  of  rights  interpose  between 
it  and  its  will,  is  its  inspiring  principle,  and  is  blazoned  on 
all  its  policy.  It  never  permits  "  I  dare  not"  to  wait  upon 
"  I  would." 

A  bold  party  has  its  place  among  the  modern  activities, 
and  if  it  would  honor  and  obey  the  eternal  principles  of 
justice,  we  would  step  aside  and  leave  its  thundering  train 
to  pass  on  unimpeded.  But  flushed  with  long  success, 
made  arrogant  and  overbearing  by  its  almost  unbroken 
line  of  victories,  it  has  come  to  think  itself  invincible,  and 
its  will  has  become  its  governing  law,  and  that  will  has 
one,  and  that  an  all-absorbing,  purpose.  That  purpose 
is,  so  far  as  the  institution  of  slavery  is  concerned,  to  over- 
turn the  whole  policy  of  the  fathers  of  the  republic,  and 
to  roll  backward  the  tide  of  progress  which  for  nearly  a 
century  has  been  gathering  force  and  volume.  More  than 
this,  claiming  in  times  past  to  be  the  peculiar  champion  of 
State  ricrhts'as  against  federal  encroachment,  the  demo- 


350  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

cnitic  pcilic}'  has  become  the  maelstrom  of  all  State  ri<^hts, 
of  all  State  sovereignty,  when  exercised  in  behalf  of  free 
as  against  servile  labor. 

I  care  not  to  go  back  beyond  the  passage  of  the  Kansas- 
Nebraska  bill.  I  do  not  controvert  the  general  princi[)le 
that,  in  view  of  the  nature  of  our  government,  its  diver- 
sity of  interests,  the  equitable  considerations  that  present 
themselves  between  parties  acquiring  territory  by  common 
blood  and  treasure,  the  inhabitants  of  a  new  territory 
should  be  left  free  to  form  a  constitution  tolerating  or 
rejecting  slavery.  For  the  ultimate  interests  of  free  labor, 
irrespective  of  the  justice  of  the  principle,  this  rule  is 
vastly  preferable  to  any  arbitrary  line  of  exclusion  by 
latitudes  and  degrees.  The  Northern  States  have  nearly 
twenty  millions  of  people  to  whom  emigration  is  almost 
a  second  nature  ;  and  there  is  a  tidal  wave  of  humanity 
which  scarce  knows  "  retiring  ebb,"  ever  surging  up  from 
the  European  world,  and  laving  the  broad  domain  of  our 
western  territories.  With  a  just  government  there  is  no 
danger,  and  slavery,  by  the  law  of  emigration,  will  be 
limited  in  its  progress  to  the  tropical  regions.  I  regard 
this  as  certain  as  the  fiat  of  God.  But  in  view  of  its 
sacredness  as  a  compact,  the  Missouri  Compromise — an 
enactment  passed  by  the  vote  of  some  of  the  wisest  and 
greatest  and  most  patriotic  men  who  have  ever  conferred 
honor  upon  human  nature — ought  not  to  have  been 
repealed,  and  the  new  principle  should  have  had  its 
application  to  other  territory.  It  necessarily  threw  open 
that  virgin  domain  to  rapine  and  violence  and  civil  war. 
The  gauntlet  throw^n  down  by  the  Southern  democracy, 
was  certain  to  be  picked  up  by  men  who  feared  neither 
bravado  nor  steel.  At  once  was  revealed  the  policy  of 
the  democratic  party.  The  whole  power  of  the  federal 
government  was  thrown   into  the  scale  against  the  North 


LECOMPTON    (KANSAS)   CONSTITUTION.  35  1 

and  against  free  labor.  Border  ruffianism  in  all  its 
shapes  and  guises,  oppression  through  the  federal  courts, 
fraud  more  flagrant  than  ever  before  made  a  burlesque 
of  the  forms  of  election,  signalized  the  entire  Kansas 
policy  of  the  Pierce  administration  and  the  democratic 
party.  When  I  speak  of  the  democratic  party,  I  speak 
not  of  our  friends  and  neighbors  at  home  who  are  of 
that  organization,  but  of  the  hand  that  guides  it,  of  the 
power  that  sits  behind  its  throne  and  dictates  its  action, 
of  the  animus  that  inspires  and  vitalizes  its  political 
life.  And  this  is  that  band  of  Southern  politicians,  the 
living  exponents  of  the  latter-day  policy  and  views  of 
John  C.  Calhoun,  who  have  no  love  for  this  Union, 
and  whose  purpose  it  is  to  put  free  labor  under  eternal 
ban,  and  by  fraud  or  force  to  establish  slavery  on  every 
foot  of  our  present  and  future  territories. 

The  administration  of  Mr.  Buchanan  is  but  the  last 
intensified.  With  State  sovereignty  on  its  lips,  its  terri- 
torial policy  is  as  absolute  as  Austria's.  The  partition  of 
Poland  to  appease  the  Northern  Bear  was  not  more 
flagrant  in  its  injustice  than  the  attempt  to  force  upon 
Kansas  a  constitution  which  she  loathed,  and  which  by  ten 
thousand  voices  she  had  spurned.  And  if  proof  were  want- 
ing that  the  lower  deeps  of  degradation  were  in  reserve  for 
us,  it  is  afforded  in  the  last  act  of  the  drama.  The  attempt 
to  throw  the  lasso  over  Kansas,  and  to  drag  her,  manacled 
and  fettered  into  the  Union,  a  helpless  victim  garlanded 
for  the  sacrificial  altar  of  its  enemies,  did  not  succeed. 
Thanks  to  Senator  Douglas  and  the  republicans  in  con- 
gress, who,  preferring  the  triumph  of  a  principle  to  party, 
combined  with  the  noble  band  of  Americans  to  deliver 
the  captive. 

The  administration  now  makes  the  infamous  attempt 
to  seduce  the  virtue  of  Kansas.     It  declares  to  her  that 


352  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

if  she  will  consent  to  be  baptized  at  tl>e  font  of  sla\-cry, 
Mr.  Buchanan  standing  as  the  god-father,  she  shall  receive 
millions  for  her  moral  treason,  and  at  once  the  added  star 
shall  glitter  to  her  name  on  the  national  ensigns.  Terri- 
torial pupilage  for  years  is  the  avowed  penalty  of  her 
refusal.  And  this  is  called  submission  of  the  constitution 
to  the  people  !  A  highwayman  demands  of  a  traveler  his 
money  or  his  life.  He  surrenders  his  money  and  saves 
his  life,  and  then  the  highwayman  pleads  that  the  act  was 
voluntary  ! 

Mr.  Chairman,  with  what  prophetic  vision  can  we  see 
the  train  of  States  yet  to  arise  out  of  the  now  western 
wilds  beyond  the  floods  of  the  Kansas. 

"  I  hear  the  tread  of  pioneers 
Of  nations  yet  to  be, 
The  first  low  wash  of  waves,  where  soon 
Shall  roll  a  human  sea." 

What  is  their  greeting  by  the  democratic  party,  as,  robed 
in  beauty  and  glory,  they  advance  from  the  womb  of  the 
wilderness  and  prairie  ?  What  is  its  language  to  the  sons 
and  daughters  of  New  England,  whom  the  throes  of  the 
Future  shall  give  to  people  and  subdue  either  slope  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains?  "The  fetters  are  already  forged,  our 
popular  sovereignty  is  executive  tyranny.  You  adopt  free 
constitutions  at  peril.  If  free,  you  come  in  as  beggars, 
and  when  by  force  of  your  numbers  you  are  irresistible. 
For  slave  institutions  we  have  bounties — for  free  institu- 
tions, territorial  pupilage  and  stripes." 

Republicans,  Whigs,  Americans,  we  are  met  to-night 
with  some  differences  of  opinion  on  some  subordinate 
questions,  but  agreeing  in  this :  that  the  control  of  the 
federal  government  is  in  the  hands  of  the  disunion  poli- 
ticians of  the  democratic  party,  and  that  the  dearest  rights 
of  State  sovereignty  and  free  labor  are  being  prostrated 


LECOMPTON   (KANSAS)   CONSTITUTION.  353 

at  the  feet  of  this  power.  Protective  of  the  rights  of 
States  or  persons  in  connection  with  slavery,  we  are  with- 
out a  constitution.  We  have  a  parchment  and  a  parade 
of  words,  but  it  has  no  more  vitahty,  it  affords  no  more 
safeguards,  it  yields  no  more  certain  guidance,  known  and 
read  and  comprehended  of  all  men,  than  does  a  papyrus 
exhumed  from  Herculaneum,  or  now  lying  entombed 
under  the  Pyramids  of  Egypt.  The  will  of  a  party  has 
superseded  the  constitution.  What  is  our  political  duty 
as  men,  as  patriots?  In  the  language  of  the  call  under 
which  we  are  assembled,  I  believe  it  is  "  to  unite  at  the 
polls  for  the  purpose  of  deposing  an  administration  at 
once  so  faithless  and  despotic." 

I  have  no  doubt  that  it  is  the  solemn  duty  of  all  the 
elements  of  opposition  to  combine  and  restore  the  govern- 
ment, not  to  this  party  or  to  that  party,  not  to  this  set  of 
men  or  to  that  set  of  men,  but  to  justice.  If  anybody 
will  tell  me  how  this  can  be  done — how  a  party  that  has 
so  betrayed  the  interests  of  the  North,  and  violated  the 
most  sacred  rights  of  State  sovereignty,  can  be  over- 
thrown, and  a  just  policy  be  inaugurated,  and  the  federal 
offices  still  be  left  in  their  hands — I  will  adopt  the  happy 
method.  But  until  this  Utopian  way  is  revealed  to  us,  I 
know  no  other  than  through  an  opposition  congress  and 
president.  What,  in  the  future,  is  to  be  the  policy  of 
administration  ?  Is  the  whole  power  of  the  government, 
its  army,  its  navy,  its  judiciary,  its  executive,  its  congress, 
all  to  be  impressed  into  the  service  of  the  extension  of 
slave  and  the  depression  of  free  labor?  Is  the  slave-trade 
to  be  re-opened?  Is  the  North  to  have  no  political  life, 
except  by  courtesy?  Are  State  rights  to  signify  only  the 
rights  of  slave  States?  Is  this  interest,  representing  icw 
in  numbers,  but  colossal  in  power,  forever  to  overshadow 
the  land,  subordinating  to  it  every  other  interest  of  prop- 


354  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

crty  and  labor?  These  are  the  present  issues  before  the 
country.  Will  we  combine  the  fragments,  big  and  little, 
to  revolutionize  the  existing  regime  /  The  ballot-box 
affords  the  remedy.  Will  we  adopt  it?  But  there  is  a 
cry  against  coalition.  A  coalition  !  A  genuine  raw  head 
and  bloody  bones  to  alarm  the  timid.  A  combination  of 
men  cemented  only  "  by  the  cohesive  power  of  public 
plunder,"  is  a  sordid  banditti  at  best.  But  a  union  of 
men  of  different  shades  of  opinion  on  minor  questions, 
but  united  to  restore  justice  to  the  government  of  the 
country,  is  worthy  and  patriotic.  Some  of  the  most 
beneficent  social  and  political  reforms  of  modern  times 
have  been  the  result  of  combinations  independent  of  old 
organizations. 

Truth  is  a  great  gainer  when  she  is  served  rather  by  a 
general  union  of  sentiment  on  a  great  question,  than  by 
the  inflexible  and  often  unscrupulous  rule  of  a  party. 
The  abolition  of  the  slave  trade  was  never  made  a  party 
question  in  the  British  parliament.  The  friends  of  eman- 
cipation combined,  whig  and  tory,  to  secure  this  glorious 
achievement  against  a  powerful  opposition.  Faction  was 
not  permitted  to  lay  her  hands  on  the  ark  of  this  sacred 
cause.  The  same  is  true  of  the  free  trade  and  the  crim- 
inal law  questions.  Had  men  in  their  pride  or  cowardice 
shrunk  from  combining,  who  were  otherwise  at  antag- 
onisms, very  likely  that  this  very  day  the  slave-ship,  with 
its  free  charter  and  government-protected  keel,  would  be 
plowing  the  waves  of  the  British  channel. 

I  think  you  have  my  idea.  I  think  we  should  adopt 
the  wise  policy  of  the  English  people,  unite  on  a  vital 
question  to  put  down  an  administration  that  has  lost  the 
confidence  of  the  country.  A  few  days  since.  Lord  Pal- 
merston  was  overthrown  because  he  gave  too  ready  an 
ear  to  an  insolent  demand  of  the  French  Emperor.     New 


LECOMPTON   (KANSAS)   CONSTITUTION.  355 

combinations  will  overthrow  the  Derby  ministry  when  it 
loses  the  confidence  of  the  nation  on  any  of  the  great 
interests  of  the  kingdom. 

I  believe  that,  from  the  habits  of  our  people  and  the 
nature  of  our  institutions,  two  great  opposing  parties  must 
generally  and  ought  always  to  exist.  They  operate  as 
checks  upon  each  other.  The  tendency  of  power  in  any 
hands  is  to  corruption. 

The  vigilance  of  jealous  opposition  is  necessary  to  spy 
out  abuses,  and  sound  the  alarm.  But  parties  should  be 
liberal,  and  should  center  rather  in  ideas  than  in  men.  I 
confess,  that  cast  iron  thing  we  sometimes  call  party, 
which  compels  every  man  to  wear  its  collar  and  bear  its 
brand — which  tolerates  no  freedom  of  opinion,  compelling 
its  million  adherents  to  march  with  soldier  tread  to  the 
drum-beat  of  leadership — which,  instead  of  embodying  an 
army  of  free-judging  men,  approving  what  they  deem 
right  and  disapproving  what  they  deem  wrong — is  a  body 
of  political  stereotypes,  a  myriad  humanity  cast  in  one 
mold,  I  loathe  from  the  bottom  of  my  soul.  I  will  neither 
wear  such  bonds  myself,  nor  impose  them  on  my  fellow- 
man.  Parties  should  be  liberal  and  just,  shaped  and  re- 
shaped to  meet  the  exigencies  and  the  judgment  of  the 
Present.  The  dead  Past  should  be  compelled  to  bury  its 
own  dead,  and  not  permitted  to  hang  the  carcasses  of  de- 
cayed opinions  upon  the  garments  of  a  fresher  life.  Much 
has  been  lost  to  the  great  interests  of  the  country  by  the 
intolerance  of  political  organizations.  We  have  erected 
nicely-adjusted  platforms,  have  built  our  iron  bedsteads 
of  opinions  and  policies,  and  then  laid  upon  them  the 
narrow  and  the  broad,  the  long  and  the  short,  the  political 
bigot  and  the  liberal,  and  chopped  off  and  stretched  out 
until  men  have  lost  their  identities,  and  groped  about  with 
their  mutilations,    begging  their  neighbors    to  introduce 


35^5  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

tluMii  to  themselves.  Iiulividualit)'  lias  Ijeen  mer<4cd  into 
a  grand  communism  of  opinion.  1  have  no  sympathy  with 
it.  My  creed  for  an  organization  would  be  that  of  the  old 
father  in  theology:  In  non-essentials,  difference  ;  in  essen- 
tials, unity;   in  all  things,  charity. 

When  God  is  pleased  to  cast  an  audience  like  this  in 
one  physical  and  mental  mold,  and  one  man  becomes  a 
perfect  type  of  all  the  other  men,  then  this  Procrustean 
policy  may  be  tolerated. 

What  bearing  have  these  views  upon  our  present  con- 
dition ?  The  administration,  by  a  series  of  measures  which 
we  believe  utterly  subversive  of  the  liberties  of  the  people 
and  the  rights  of  States,  has  lost  the  confidence  of  the 
country.  Rather,  it  never  had  its  confidence,  and  was 
elevated  only  because  the  opposition  was  divided.  If  it 
has  not  done  all  the  mischief  it  has  proposed,  it  has  not 
been  for  the  want  of  a  will,  but  because  the  spirit  of  an 
oppressed  people  has  been  superior  even  to  the  power  of 
the  government.  Shall  the  opposition,  scattered  all  over 
thirty-three  States  of  this  glorious  Union,  and  represent- 
ing not  all,  but  a  majority  of  the  high  character,  the  intel- 
ligence and  the  material  interests  of  the  country,  refuse 
to  combine  to  overthrow  this  faithless  administration,  be- 
cause when  the  great  wrong  is  righted  we  may  differ 
among  ourselves  on  subordinate  questions?  Should  we 
shrink  from  a  common  struggle  for  free  altars,  because, 
when  the  principle  of  toleration  is  triumphant  we  would 
not  harmonize  on  creeds  and  rituals?  Or,  would  we  first 
fight  together  the  battle  of  Runnymede,  laying  aside  our 
minor  controversies  until  Magna  Cliarta  was  won. 

And  here  I  want  to  look  for  a  moment  at  the  claimed 
differences  which  now  divide  the  opposition.  And  I  say, 
on  the  threshold,  that  when  brought  down  to  the  actual 
opinions  of  the  great  body  of  Americans  and  republicans, 


LECOMPTON   (KANSAS)   CONSTITUTION.  357 

and  of  old  \vhi<^s  who  have  kept  aloof  from  botli  these 
parties,  the  recent  action  in  congress  shows  there  is  no 
very  wide  difference  between  them.  Distinct  political 
associations  and  separate  leaderships,  and  the  bitterness 
engendered  among  different  circles  of  men  by  the  an- 
tagonisms and  strifes  of  past  conflicts,  have  dug  a  gulf 
between  us,  much  deeper  and  broader  than,  as  yet  mani- 
fested, has  any  existing  difference  of  opinion  in  relation 
to  present  or  future  policy.  I  present  you  John  J.  Crit- 
tenden, the  veteran  senator  of  Kentucky,  as  a  t}'pe  of 
the  American  sentiment,  w'ith  rare  if  any  exceptions,  in 
every  State  of  this  Union.  Who  has  dealt  more  damag- 
ing blows  to  the  great  iniquity  of  the  administration  than 
he?  What  is  his  position  on  the  territorial  question? 
That  the  federal  government  shall  bring  all  its  power,  if 
necessary,  to  protect  the  settlers  of  the  new  territories 
against  ruffian  violence  and  official  fraud  ;  and  if,  in  the 
free  exercise  of  their  suffrage,  they  adopt  a  free  constitu- 
tion, the  new  State  shall  be  received  into  the  Union  as 
cordially  as  if  it  came  with  the  institutions  of  his  own 
State.  No  more,  no  less.  That  if  by  fraud  or  violence  it 
has  imposed  upon  it  any  constitution  against  its  will,  it 
shall  be  kept  out,  unless  the  wrong  be  righted,  until  the 
crack  of  doom.  This  principle  adopted,  and  all  the  prac- 
tical results  to  freedom  in  the  territories  which  organiza- 
tion can  give  her,  are  secured.  If  this  be  not  entirely 
accordant  with  the  republican  idea,  it  is  sufficiently  so  to 
form  the  basis  of  a  union  for  the  overthrow  of  a  power 
which,  we  both  agree,  is  destructive  of  the  rights  of  States 
and  of  the  principles  of  the  constitution.  But  it  is  said 
we  were  running  different  presidential  candidates  in  1856, 
and  therefore,  it  would  be  argued,  we  must  always 
divide,  and  open  up  a  highway  between  our  forces  for 
the    ever-triumphant    march    of    the    democratic    party. 


358  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

Not  to  review  that  cami)aiL,Mi,  I  will  sa\-  that  the  repeal 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  and  the  wrongs  in  Kansas, 
or<;anized  the  republican  party.  Except  as  it  was  a  vent 
to  tlie  justl)'-roused  popular  indij^niation,  its  practical 
results,  as  has  always  appeared  to  me,  could  be  no  more 
than  to  protect  the  settlers,  and,  by  leavin<j  them  free 
to  choose,  make  Kansas  a  free  State,  and  generally  be  a 
resisting  power  to  the  aggressive  portion  of  the  slavery 
interest.  That  aggressive  element  is  the  interest  which 
seeks  its  ends  through  the  democratic  organization.  I 
have  no  doubt  that  had  the  republican  party  succeeded, 
Kansas  would  to-day  have  been  a  free  and  sovereign 
State.  Had  the  American  party  succeeded,  I  believe  the 
speech  of  Mr.  Crittenden  on  the  Lecompton  Constitution 
— a  speech  worthy  of  the  palmiest  days  of  senatorial 
eloquence- — a  certain  indication  of  what  would  have  been 
its  policy.  I  believe  it  would,  on  the  Kansas  question, 
have  been  the  antipodes  of  the  Buchanan  policy,  and 
that,  protected  by  the  paternal  power  of  the  government 
in  its  homes,  in  its  franchises  and  rights,  Kansas,  robed 
in  her  most  royal  apparel,  w-ould  to-day  have  been  a  free 
and  sovereign  State.  I  know  that  the  action  of  a  very 
large  portion  of  the  moral  and  religious  sentiment  of  the 
country,  and  of  its  very  best  citizenship,  was  with  the 
republican  organization.  But  while  such  was  the  general 
character  of  the  two  hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand 
republican  voters  of  New  York,  I  also  know  that  the 
one  hundred  and  twenty-five  thousand  voters  in  this 
State  for  the  American  candidates,  represented  as  much 
intelligence  and  personal  worth  and  patriotism  as  did 
ever  any  organization  of  the  same  number  of  men  that 
was  ever  formed  for  political  objects.  As  it  was  here,  so 
it  was  elsewhere.  We  did  not  see  alike  our  duty,  and  by 
a  division  of  action,  where,  on  the  Kansas  question,  there 


LECOMPTON   (KANSAS)   CONSTITUTION.  359 

was  little  difference  of  opinion,  the  tyrannical  policy  of 
the  Pierce  administration  was  perpetuated.  But  because 
by  reason  of  our  dissensions,  Joseph  was  sold  into  Egypt, 
shall  we  now  refuse  deliverance  for  our  Israel?  For  with- 
out a  union  there  is  no  national  triumph  for  any  other 
than  the  present  policy.  Strong  as  you  are,  powerful 
as  you  may  be,  you  are  not,  separate,  strong  enough. 
United,  the  three-fold  cord  could  not  be  broken. 

You  have  my  views.  I  would  see  an  organization  upon 
a  basis  broad  enough  to  receive  all  the  opposition  to  the 
present  democratic  policy.  I  want  no  "pent  up  Utica," 
with  walls  so  high  as  to  exclude  John  J.  Crittenden,  John 
Bell,  Humphrey  Marshall,  Henry  Winter  Davis,  and  tens 
of  thousands  of  noble  spirits  scattered  all  over  the  South, 
who  love  this  Union  as  well  as  you  and  I  do,  who  ask 
nothing  for  slavery  but  its  constitutional  rights,  and  who, 
with  all  the  force  of  their  intellect  and  position,  have 
resisted  the  great  iniquity  of  the  administration.  I  ask 
you,  my  friends,  if,  while  you  are  garlanding  a  Seward 
and  a  Douglas  with  the  laurel  wreath,  if  of  the  greenest 
and  fairest,  you  would  not  deck  the  brow  of  the  gallant 
Kentucky  senator? 

O,  no,  gentlemen,  this  fight  is  not  against  the  South 
as  a  section,  but  against  a  party  in  the  South.  The 
democratic  party  having  its  central  energy  and  head  at 
the  South,  as  much  as  the  Papal  Church  has  its  guiding 
power  in  Italy,  is  the  foe.  And  the  majority  in  a  half 
dozen  States  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  are  with 
us  on  every  essential  principle.  I  tell  you  the  old  whig 
party  in  the  slave  States  was  opposed  to  the  repeal  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise,  and  knowing  that  Kansas  has 
been  fairly  won  by  free  labor,  will  throw  the  whole  weight 
of  their  influence  to  secure  to  her  her  sovereign  rights  as 
a  State.     And   that   party  constitutes  to-day  the   largest 


360  ADDRKSSHS   AND    MISCKLI.ANIES. 

portion  of  the  American  part)'  of  the  South.  This  is 
tluir  position,  not  because  had  the  laws  of  emigration 
and  production  made  Kansas  fairly  a  slave  State,  it  would 
have  been  disagreeable  to  them,  but  because  the  same 
laws  have  made  it  free,  and  they  stand,  where  they  ask  us 
to  stand,  b)'  justice  and  the  principles  of  the  constitution. 

But,  it  is  asked,  suppose  we  combine,  and  wrest  the 
government  from  this  misrule  and  injustice,  and  give  to 
free  labor  its  constitutional  rights,  and  suppose  that,  after 
this  is  achieved,  we  shall  so  differ  about  a  tariff,  or  a  war, 
or  a  peace,  or  the  District  of  Columbia,  or  Cuba,  or  about 
the  Niagara  Falls,  or  the  White  Mountains,  that  we 
cannot  hold  together,  what  then  shall  we  do?  If  such  a 
contingency  happen,  if  Judah  and  Ephraim  cannot  agree 
after  their  deliverance  from  bondage,  let  them  rejoice  in 
the  perpetual  triumph  of  the  great  principle  of  this 
conflict,  and  separate.  Let  this  organization  then,  if  it 
must,  "melt  and  dissolve  and  be  no  longer  seen."  If  it 
shall  have  fulfilled  its  mission  when  it  has  crushed  this 
disunion  oligarchy,  it  will  have  lived  not  unworthily,  and 
can  afford  to  die. 

Every  present  has  its  own  questions.  Sufficient  for  the 
day  are  the  organizations  that  shall  meet  them.  But  I 
will  say,  in  passing,  that  moral  and  political  sympathies 
have  their  laws  of  attraction  as  well  as  have  material 
objects.  But  it  is  asked  by  the  democratic  party,  and 
with  seeming  anxiety,  who  is  to  hold  the  offices  of  your 
opposition  party?  I  answer,  men  whose  character  and 
ability  have  its  confidence,  and  whom  its  sentiments  shall 
indicate  as  the  desired  exponents  of  its  views. 

But  how  is  this  combination  to  be  accomplished  ?  I 
answer,  in  any  way  that  preserves  the  self-respect  of 
individuals  and  parties.  It  can  be,  it  will  be,  by  no  treaty 
between  parties  as  victors  and  vanquished.     We  meet  as 


LECOMPTON   (KANSAS)   CONSTITUTION.  36 1 

friends  and  equals.  There  is  no  Hector  to  be  dragged 
around  the  walls  of  our  political  Troy  to  appease  the 
wrath  of  any  Achilles.  I  believe  this  is  the  universal  feel- 
ing among  all  parties  who  desire  a  combined  opposition. 
As  for  names  they  are  of  little  consequence.  We  want 
substance,  not  shadows ;  facts,  not  fancies ;  results,  not 
pageants. 

Men  of  Erie  county  who  have  responded  to  this  call !  do 
we  not  agree  perfectly  on  State  policy,  on  the  questions 
of  the  canals,  and  the  protection  of  the  purity  of  elections? 
Why,  then,  on  State  and  county  affairs  should  we  divide 
our  political  action  ? 

Do  we  essentially  differ  on  national  questions?  Is  it 
not  true  of  a  large  portion  of  you  republicans,  and  of  a 
large  portion  of  us  Americans,  and  of  all  you  old  whigs, 
that  for  twenty-five  years,  with  the  exception  of  the 
interim  since  1851,  you  acted  in  entire  harmony- — sharing 
common  defeats,  and  rejoicing  in  common  victories — 
worshiping  at  the  same  political  altars — sitting  at  the 
feet  of  the  same  great  teachers  ?  And  although  events 
almost  revolutionary,  which  lashed  the  public  mind  into 
storm  as  a  tempest-driven  sea,  wrenching  us  in  its  fury 
away  from  our  old  anchorages,  and  whirling  us  by  irresis- 
tible currents  into  new  relations,  had  separated,  and  even 
angered  us,  did  we  not  together  go  down  to  the  side  of 
the  sea,  to  commit  the  dust  we  had  alike  honored  in  past 
days,  to  its  last  repose  at  Marshfield  ?  Did  not  all  our 
hearts  sit  in  sorrow,  mourning  as  those  w4io  would  not  be 
comforted,  as  our  other — shall  I  say  greater  ? — leader  in 
the  conflict  of  the  past  sank  into  his  last  sleep  amid 
the  groves  of  Ashland?  "I  had  rather  be  right  than 
president  "  was  the  instinct  of  patriotism  which  in  Clay 
was  ready  to  offer  up  every  personal  ambition  on  the 
altar  of  country. 
34 


362  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCKI.I.AXIHS. 

Gentlemen,  patriotism  calls  upon  us  to  make  some 
sacrifice  rather  of  feelinfr  than  principle.  Can  we  not 
say,  ought  we  not  to  say,  that 

"  Those  opposed  eyes — 
Which  like  the  meteors  of  a  troubled  heaven, 
All  of  one  nature,  of  one  substance  bred. 
Did  lately  meet  in  th'  intestine  shock — 
Shall  now  in  mutual,  well  beseeming  ranks 
March  all  one  way,  and  be  no  more  opposed." 


REPUBLICAN    PRINCIPLES.  363 


REPUBLICAN    PRINCIPLES. 

A  Speech  at  a  Republican  Meeting,  held  in  the  Cooper  Institute, 
IN  THE  City  of  New  York,  September  13,  i860. 


Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  : 

The  late  republican  convention  at  Syracuse  had  a 
double  ofifice  to  perform.  One  to  ratify  the  nominations, 
long  before  made  by  the  people,  of  Governor  Morgan 
and  Lieutenant-Governor  Campbell.  This  was  not  all. 
New  York  is  "  Empire,"  and  among  the  foremost  of  the 
powers  of  the  world,  in  commerce,  in  arts,  in  all  the  tro- 
phies of  industry  and  peace.  Still  she  is  an  imperiuni 
in  imperio.  Glorious  as  she  is,  appearing  among  the 
political  constellations  of  this  continent  like 


a  new  morn 


Risen  on  mid-noon," 

still  she  is  but  a  planet  in  a  system,  obeying  all  the  influ- 
ences which  would  hold  her  in  her  constitutional  orbit 
around  the  federal  center.  It  again  devolves  upon  her 
to  express  her  purpose  and  will  in  relation  to  the  future 
polic}'  of  the  general  government  of  which  she  forms  so 
important  a  part.  It  was  the  business  of  the  convention 
to  indicate  the  medium  of  that  expression.  You  will 
ratify  that  part  of  the  labor  of  the  convention  at  the 
polls  under  the  banner  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Gentlemen, 
Mr.  Lincoln  is  the  representative  man  of  a  great  idea, 
an  idea  which  the  republican  party  is  organized  to  main- 
tain.    There  is  inspiration  in  the   moral   element  which 


364  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

vitalizes  your  thoughts.  Wc  arc  entering  upon  a  cam- 
paign, not  of  fiery  passion,  but  of  deep  conviction,  and 
that  con\-iction  centering  not  uj)on  material  and  money- 
hunting  interests,  but  in  the  nobler,  the  diviner  elements 
of  the  human  soul.  It  is  a  moral  as  well  as  a  political 
controversy  in  which  we  are  embarked.  So  far  as  it 
involves  those  States  which  are  to  spring  from  the 
virgin  territories  of  the  West,  it  is  not  simply  a  ques- 
tion of  how  rich  they  shall  be,  but  shall  their  institutions 
be  noble,  humane,  free.  Shall  labor,  that  gives  value  to 
all  material  things  there,  constitute  a  ruling  element,  be 
a  recognized,  respected  power,  having  open  to  it  all  the 
avenues  of  wealth,  culture  and  consideration,  or  shall  it 
come  under  the  law  of  caste,  wear  the  badge  of  dishonor, 
and  thus  stand  shorn  of  the  glory  with  which  God 
endowed  it? 

Nay,  more,  shall  the  old  States,  shall  the  State  of 
New  York,  whose  institutions  are  all  the  outgrowth  of 
free  labor,  whose  great  heart  has  for  fifty  years  beat  in 
sympathy  with  the  progressive  thought  of  the  age,  erase 
her  Excelsior  from  her  escutcheon?  Shall  she  substitute 
in  the  place  of  the  Goddess  of  Liberty,  whose  image  her 
escutcheon  bears,  the  chains  and  manacles  of  human 
bondage  ?  I  do  not  overstate  the  importance  of  this 
controversy.  I  say  there  is  an  inspiration  in  the  living 
issues  of  to-day  which  you  will  look  for  in  vain  in 
the  currency  and  industrial  questions  of  by-gone  times. 
Decayed  opinions.  North  and  South,  are  buried  out  of 
sight,  and  the  present,  pulsating  with  all  the  energies  of 
its  new  life,  and  clad  in  its  moral  armor,  is  occupied  with 
the  living  facts  of  the  hour.  A  few  questions  and  rights 
were  settled  long  ago,  which  we  may  for  a  moment 
review.  Our  fathers  were  men  of  like  passions  with  our- 
selves.    They  had  private  ambitions,  purposes  of  gain, 


REPUBLICAN    PRINCIPLES.  ^6 


o'^3 


local  pride  and  State  pride.  They  passed  through  the 
revolution  with  that  rope  of  sand,  the  confederacy, 
which  was  utterly  impotent  to  meet  their  commercial  or 
national  necessities.  It  was  not  sentiment  alone  that 
led  them  to  form  this  federal  union,  although  fraternal 
feeling"  was  not  wanting.  It  was  as  well  a  necessity  aris- 
ing from  defenseless  frontiers,  a  prostrate  commerce,  a 
ruined  credit  and  the  utter  want  of  any  central  power  to 
do  any  act  to  meet  a  single  one  of  their  pressing  exigen- 
cies. There  was  nominal  slavery  then  in  all  the  States, 
only  nominal  in  the  Northern.  It  formed  one  of  the 
serious  embarrassments  to  the  Union  ;  but  after  months 
of  discussion  in  the  federal  convention,  in  State  con- 
ventions, and  in  the  primary  assemblies  of  the  people, 
the  Union  was  formed,  the  result  of  amicable  conces- 
sions and  adjustments,  sacred  and  inviolable  then,  sacred 
and  inviolable  now  and  forever. 

The  three-fifth  representation  in  congress  of  those 
holding  the  servile  relation  ;  the  keeping  open  the  slave- 
trade  until  1808  ;  the  provision  for  the  return  of  fugitives 
from  labor,  meaning  escaped  slaves,  with  such  other 
rights  as  the  common  law  then  in  force  throughout  the 
country,  could  invest  that  interest — these  were  the  chief 
rights  guaranteed  and  secured  by  the  federal  constitu- 
tion to  the  institution  of  slavery.  These  are  the  stipula- 
tions in  the  federal  bond  which  our  fathers  pledged  New 
York  for  all  time  to  maintain.  She  always  will  maintain 
them  and  discharge  this  debt  levied  upon  her  honor. 
Good  faith  is  the  basis  of  all  human  confidence,  and  of 
all  free  empire.  And  as  an  individual  man,  I  unite 
with  you  in  this  canvass  because  I  find  at  the  threshold 
of  your  organization  a  sacred  pledge  of  your  moral  and 
political  power  to  maintain  inviolate  the  rights  of  the 
States,   leaving  to    them  the    amplest    exercise    of  every 


366  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

ri<^ht  which  under  the  federal  constitution  pertains  to 
State  sovereignty;  because  you  have  pledged  the  power 
of  the  government,  if  )'ou  shall  ever  be  iiuested  u  ith  it, 
to  put  down  all  unlawful  invasions  from  without  of  the 
slave  States,  and  to  punish  as  "the  gravest  of  crimes" 
such  forays  upon  their  peace  ;  because,  furthermore,  I 
find  in  the  man  who  is  to  give  direction  to  the  policy  of 
your  administration  of  the  government,  a  man  whose 
every  sentiment  and  act,  in  private  and  in  public  life, 
demonstrates  his  love  of  this  federal  union,  and  his 
fidelity  to  all  the  balances  and  compromises  of  tlie  con- 
stitution. In  the  moral  and  political  pledge  which  you 
gave  to  the  world  at  Chicago,  and  in  the  character  of 
your  nominee,  I  find  solid  ground  to  stand  upon.  Noth- 
ing can  jostle  it,  for  it  is  anchored  in  eternal  justice. 

Gentlemen,  why  is  the  slavery  question.  North  and 
South,  the  pre-eminent  one,  submerging  for  a  time  every 
other  public  question  ?  I  think  I  do  not  mistake  it,  when 
I  say,  that  it  is  because  the  controlling  part  of  the  slave 
interest  is  attempting  to  revolutionize  the  whole  theory 
and  practice  of  the  government  in  its  relations  to  that 
institution,  and  the  democratic  party  has  fully  committed 
itself  as  the  instrument  for  consummating  that  revolution. 
Tt  was  initiated  by  Mr.  Calhoun,  when  the  last  sands  of 
his  life  were  running  out,  his  eye  still  undimned,  and  his 
intellect  in  the  full  splendor  of  its  power.  To  have  the 
federal  government  recognize  and  protect  slavery  as  a 
national,  not  a  local  institution,  as  the  creation  of  univer- 
sal and  not  of  municipal  law,  that  it  may  under  such 
regulation  and  protection  obtain  a  foothold  in  principle, 
and  in  fact,  in  all  our  territorial  domain,  and  by  logical 
consequence  in  every  State  of  the  union  where  the  mas- 
ter may  please  to  transport  his  slave — this,  I  say,  is  rev- 
olutionary doctrine.     Until  within  the  last  fifteen  years 


REPUBLICAN    PRINCIPLES.  367 

it  was  always  conceded  that  the  servile  relation  was 
solely  the  creation  of  municipal,  and  not  of  natural  and 
universal  law.  This  was  declared  by  Lord  Mansfield  to 
be  the  law  of  England.  It  was  this  national  sentiment 
pervading  the  body  of  English  law,  which  inspired  Curran 
to  utter  that  immortal  tribute  to  the  genius  of  eman- 
cipation, at  whose  touch  "  the  god  and  the  altar  of 
servitude  sink  together  in  the  dust,"  leaving  the  victim 
"  emancipated,  redeemed  and  disenthralled."  Such  trib- 
ute did  the  noble  old  common  law  pay  to  personal 
freedom.  In  addition  to  this,  it  is  the  avowed  purpose  of 
a  large  and  influential  portion  of  the  democratic  party 
to  re-open  the  foreign  slave-trade,  and  obtain  a  code  for 
its  domestic  protection  in  the  territories. 

These  new  doctrines  I  resist  in  their  whole  and  in  their 
details.  I  resist  them  because  while  I  believe  that  none 
but  a  parricidal  hand  would  touch  a  single  one  of  the 
safeguards  of  slavery  in  the  States  where  it  now  exists, 
through  the  agency  of  the  general  government,  and 
against  the  consent  of  the  States  themselves  ;  I  also  be- 
lieve slavery  to  be  a  relic  of  the  darker  ages,  which  ought 
to  recede  rather  than  advance,  before  the  light  of  a 
Christian  civilization.  I  resist  them  because  I  believe  it 
is  a  blighting  curse  to  the  territory  in  which  it  obtains  a 
foothold,  and  to  its  people.  I  resist  them  because  I  be- 
lieve its  establishment  as  a  principle  and  as  a  fact  is 
equal  to  a  bill  of  exclusion  of  emigration  from  the  free 
States.  Free  labor  and  slave  labor  I  believe  may  exist 
in  separate  States,  under  the  same  federal  government. 
Had  no  new  territories  offered  a  theatre  for  the  strus-g-le 
now  going  on,  I  believe  Virginia  might  have  held  slaves 
to  the  crack  of  doom,  and  not  necessarily  interfered  with 
the  free  labor  system  of  New  York.  But  if  Virginia 
establishes  her  institutions  in  Kansas,  and  throws  around 


36S  ADDRESSES   AND    M  ISCKLI.ANIKS. 

thcni  the  prt^tcction  of  the  general  and  State  •govern- 
ments, New  York  is  practically  excluded.  The  prosperous 
establishment  of  both  these  systems  in  tlie  same  State 
government  is  impossible,  and  the  settlement  by  cither 
in  a  given  State  or  territory  is  an  absolute  concjuest  to 
itself  until  the  system  voluntarily  yields  to  its  rival. 
Now  what  is  demanded  by  the  extreme  slave  interest, 
and  what  I  believe  the  democratic  party  will  concede,  as 
it  has  always  conceded  everything  it  dared,  always  having 
in  view  its  ability  to  retain  its  foothold  in  the  North,  is 
either  a  matter  of  right  under  the  constitution,  and  if  so, 
the  slave  interest  is  entitled  to  it,  or  it  is  not,  and  then  it 
resolves  itself  into  a  question  of  ability  to  command  its 
way  and  enforce  its  will.  Is  it,  under  the  federal  consti- 
tution, entitled  to  what  it  demands?  Whom  .shall  I  con- 
sult? I,  for  one,  will  go  to  the  fathers  who  reared  this 
constitutional  edifice,  and,  with  the  most  teachable  spirit 
I  can  command,  will  sit  at  their  feet  and  learn  of  them. 
And  from  Washington,  and  Jefferson,  and  Hamilton,  and 
every  statesman  of  the  early  time,  I  learn  that  under  our 
constitution  slavery  is  local,  not  national,  that  it  is  a 
relation  of  labor,  not  a  condition  of  property.  I  learn, 
too,  from  them  that  it  was  regarded,  not  a  blessing  to  be 
perpetuated,  but  an  evil  to  be  lamented. 

The  mantle  of  the  fathers  fell  upon  the  shoulders  of 
Henry  Clay,  whose  every  instinct  was  patriotic,  and  from 
him  I  learn  that  neither  patriotism,  nor  moral  duty,  nor 
fealty  to  the  constitution,  requires  me  to  surrender  the 
new  territories,  whether  acquired  by  purchase  or  con- 
quest, to  slavery.  With  his  hand  on  the  holiest  altar  of 
country,  himself  a  representative  of  a  slave  State,  he 
declared  that  "  no  earthly  power  should  ever  make  him 
(me)  vote  to  plant  slavery  where  slavery  does  not  exist." 
This    is    Southern    authority.     There  is  another,  a  little 


REPUBLICAN     PRINCIPLES.  369 

nearer  the  North  star,  to  whom  many  of  you,  as  well  as 
I,  are  accustomed  to  go  for  just  expositions  of  the  con- 
stitution. A  man  of  the  most  capacious  intellect  of  his 
time,  a  man  who  cherished  no  local  patriotism,  but  loved, 
as  he  illustrated  and  adorned,  his  whole  country  ;  who, 
during  his  last  days,  was  separated  from  many  of  the 
staunchest  friends  of  his  early  and  middle  political  career, 
and  who  went  down  to  his  grave  in  the  transition  period 
of  the  republic  under  circumstances  which  left  a  work  of 
justice  to  be  done  his  political  memory  by  posterity,  a 
work  which  I  believe  posterity  will  be  glad,  as  it  will  be 
certain,  to  execute.  A  hundred  years  hence  there  will, 
except  Mount  Vernon,  be  no  spot  where  our  illustrious 
dead  repose,  more  honored  by  the  American  people, 
than  the  tomb  by  the  side  of  the  sea  at  Marshfield. 
Not  a  line  of  all  the  precious  legacy  Mr.  Webster  left 
his  countrymen — a  legacy  which  they  will  not  willingly 
let  perish — can  be  found  favoring  the  new  doctrines. 
He  repudiated  them  through  the  whole  of  the  stormy 
controversy  which  grew  out  of  the  passage  of  the  Com- 
promise Measures  of  1850.  I  listened  to  his  great  argu- 
ment at  Buffalo  in  a  drenching  rain-storm,  when  he 
developed  his  idea  of  the  constitutional  rights  of  slavery, 
as  no  man  but  he  could  do,  and  I  heard  him  utter  these 
words  to  that  enchained  assembly  : 

My  opinion  remains  unchanged,  that  it  was  not  in  the  origi- 
nal scope  or  design  of  the  constitution  to  admit  new  States  out 
of  foreign  territory,  and  for  one,  I  never  would  consent  that 
there  should  be  one  foot  of  slave  territory  beyond  what  the  old 
thirteen  States  had  at  the  time  of  the  formation  of  the  Union. 
Never,  never !  No  man  can  show,  his  face  to  me  and  prove 
that  I  ever  departed  from  that  doctrine. 

Now  this  is  authority  from  the  guiding-stars  of  the 
rc\'olution.  and  their  immediate  successors,  which  upon  a 


370  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

(Question  so  vital  to  freedom,  and  to  the  best  interests  of 
ni)'  country  and  ni)'  race,  I  will  not  reject  fov  the  de- 
cisions of  a  democratic  caucus  of  yesterday.  Give  me 
the  perennial  fountains,  not  the  dead  sea.  So  much  for 
the  constitutional  view  on  authority  and  j^recedent. 
There  is  another  view  of  this  question.  I  know,  as  I 
have  already  stated,  that  commercial  and  other  material 
interests,  rather  than  sentiments,  led  to  the  formation  of 
the  federal  constitution.  I  know  that  slavery  then  bore 
no  such  relation  to  the  wealth  and  economic  questions  of 
the  Southern  States  as  it  does  now.  Its  cotton  crop  was 
then  nothing.  Now  it  is  two  hundred  million  dollars 
per  annum.  Slaves  were  of  trifling  value.  I  know 
enough  of  human  nature  to  know  that  the  humanities 
have  a  freer  play  with  the  negroes  at  one  hundred  dollars 
than  at  $1,500  per  head.  I  know  that  increase  of  our 
territory  w^as  not  contemplated.  The  future  of  their 
country  the  fathers  did  not  comprehend.  They  "  builded 
better  than  they  knew."  The  expansive  or  aggressive 
element  of  our  institutions  has  annexed  to  itself,  since 
the  government  was  organized,  the  vast  territories  lying 
between  the  Mississippi  and  the  Pacific.  This  is  the 
legitimate  outworking  of  our  race.  This  commercial 
and  Christian  civilization  which  we  represent,  is  the 
Aaron's  rod  of  the  age,  which  not  only  buds  and  blos- 
soms, but  absorbs  the  lesser  rods,  the  effete  civilizations, 
the  "  sick  powers "  with  which  it  comes  in  contact. 
Slavery,  by  common  law,  and  by  the  constitution  as 
construed  by  the  fathers,  was  excluded  from  most  of 
this  territory.  How  should  the  barriers  be  broken  down  ? 
Only  in  one  way  :  by  adapting  the  constitution  to  the 
exigency.  Slavery  took  this  view,  and  to  a  certain 
extent  I  believe  the  doctrine.     It  is  truly  expressed  by 


REPUBLICAN     PRINCH'LES.  3/1 

the  apothegm  of  Sir  James  Mackintosh  that  constitutions 
"are  not  made,  but  grow." 

Our  federal  constitution  is  definite,  Hke  a  code,  upon 
scarce  any  of  the  questions  of  poHtical  economy  which 
constantly  arise  in  a  free  State.  Hence  the  views  of 
individuals  and  of  sections  of  the  country  as  to  their 
constitutionality,  generally  are  in  accordance  with  their 
supposed  interests.  Does  anybody  believe  that  if  every 
State  in  the  Union  had  the  same  interest  in  protecting 
manufactures  through  revenue  laws  as  Massachusetts, 
that  there  would  be  such  a  conflict  over  its  constitution- 
ality every  time  a  protective  tariff  is  proposed  in  con- 
gress? There  certainly  would  if  human  opinions  are  regu- 
lated solely  by  degrees  of  latitude  and  longitude.  Then 
how  is  this  question,  of  which  the  constitution  directly 
says  nothing,  to  be  settled?  It  is  to  be  settled  by  the 
policy  of  the  government.  And  that  policy  depends 
upon  whether  the  Slave  idea  or  the  Free  idea  obtains  the 
legitimate  possession  and  control  of  the  government. 
The  constitution  will  "grow  "  under  the  developing  hand 
of  slavery  up  to  its  requirements,  or  it  will  remain  where 
the  fathers  left  it,  under  other  guidance.  It  is  a  race  for 
power  to  control,  and  here  begins  the  conflict  for  suprem- 
acy between  opposing  forces  ;  a  conflict  which  ever  has 
appeared,  and  ever  will  where  there  are  conflicting  inter- 
ests. Here  the  battle  is  to  the  strong,  and  submission 
for  the  weak.  The  defeated  party  may  retire  with  broken 
lance  and  shivered  shield,  if  it  must,  to  sorrow  over  its 
discomfiture.  This  is  ever  its  mournful  office.  For  more 
than  six  thousand  years,  the  world  has  echoed  the  wail 
of  Hell's  great  hero  : 

"  To  be  weak  is  to  be  miserable. 
Suffering  or  doing." 


372  ADDRKSSES   AND    MISCKM.ANIKS. 

States  march  to  opportunity,  and  the)'  weep  or  rejoice 
as  the)'  hise  or  win.  This  conflict,  irrepressible  until  the 
controversy  be  settled,  is  going  on  this  very  hour  in  every 
government  in  Europe.  It  is  in  our  very  midst  and  all 
arounci  us.  What  interest  shall  shape  the  public  policy? 
In  Italy,  shall  it  be  the  Pope  or  the  people?  In  England, 
shall  it  be  the  landed  aristocracy  and  a  few  large  aggre- 
gations of  capital,  or  shall  it  be  the  great  body  of  citizens 
who  bear  substantial  burdens  to  maintain  the  govern- 
ment? In  the  United  States,  shall  it  be  the  interest 
of  Slave  labor  or  the  interest  of  Free  labor  ?  The  new 
territories  were  a  great  prize  for  the  one  or  the  other.  It 
could  not  be  a  divided  possession.  Slavery  talked  sophis- 
tically  about  the  constitution  as  it  is,  as  it  continues  to 
talk,  knowing  full  well  that  it  is  the  constitution  to  be,  at 
which  it  is  aiming.  It  met  the  exigency  boldly — repealed 
the  Missouri  Compromise,  sent  armed  men  to  take  posses- 
sion of  the  territory,  and  having  the  executive  govern- 
ment in  its  hands,  employed  all  its  power  to  wrest  it 
permanently  from  Freedom.  The  iron  glove  of  War  was 
thrown  at  the  feet  of  Free  Labor,  and  the  conflict  began. 
Opinion  met  opinion,  steel  clashed  with  steel.  For  three 
years  Kansas  was  the  field  for  the  first  great,  open  and 
bloody  conflict  for  the  supremacy  of  opposing  ideas  and 
systems.  The  government  took  the  territory  from  Free- 
dom and  gave  it  to  Squatter  Sovereignty.  The  guardian 
of  the  trust  was  not  equal  to  the  task.  Freedom  wrested 
it  back  from  Squatter  Sovereignty.  It  was  as  fair  a 
struggle  as  any  struggle  which  is  to  be  fought  out. 
Slavery  lost  and  Freedom  won. 

Now  the  tactics  are  changed.  The  nationality  of  Slav- 
ery is  demanded,  and  a  code  of  intervention  for  Slavery, 
and  of  non-intervention  for  Freedom.  Another  gage  of 
battle.      Happily,  this  is  to  be  settled  by  the  most  harm- 


REPUBLICAN     PRINCIPLES.  373 

less  of  all  weapons,  noiseless  as  the  snow-flake,  but  here 
more  potential  than  armies  or  navies.  I  tell  you,  gentle- 
men, free  constitutions  are  growths  as  well  as  creations. 
How  ours  shall  grow  is  the  question  of  the  hour.  Grant 
that  it  is  for  the  interest  of  Slavery  to  take  this  mighty 
wealth — the  unoccupied  territories — to  itself.  It  is  equally 
for  our  interest  that  they  be  open  for  the  development 
and  expansion  of  free  institutions.  I  will  not  put  it 
upon  any  higher  ground  than  material  considerations. 
And  then  I  say,  it  is  the  mightiest  stake  ever  played  for 
by  a  free  people.  If  Slavery  wins  in  constitutionally 
appointed  ways,  gets  and  keeps  control  of  the  govern- 
ment, neither  you  nor  I  will  go  mad  out  of  this  Union, 
nor  unite  with  any  conspirators  to  overthrow  it.  The 
immortal  declaration  declares  our  right  to  liberty,  but  I 
suppose  that  gives  me,  as  a  citizen  of  the  United  States, 
liberty  to  do  what  the  laws  permit.  I  stand  by  the  laws, 
whether  with  me  or  against  me,  with  a  freeman's  right  to 
change  them  if  I  can  when  they  are  against  me.  I  have 
said  that  the  logical  result  of  the  new  doctrines  carries 
slaver)'  per  force  into  every  State.  Not  to  dwell  upon 
this,  I  will  remark  that  there  is  now  pending  in  the  courts, 
a  question  which,  if  settled  adverse  to  freedom,  not  only 
annihilates  State  sovereignty,  cleaves  it  down  to  the 
grave,  a  headless,  lifeless  trunk,  but  plants  the  institution 
in  every  free  State  at  the  North. 

You  remember  the  Lemmon  case  which  arose  in  this 
city.  Eight  slaves  were  voluntarily  brought  by  their 
owner  on  to  the  soil  of  New  York,  while  she  had  a  stat- 
ute declaring  the  servile  relation  dissolved  by  such  act 
on  her  territory.  I  am  speaking  not  of  comity  but  of 
sovereign  right.  The  courts  of  this  State,  after  a  most 
exhaustive  argument,  have  decided  that  New  York  had  the 
constitutional  power  to  pass  and  enforce  her  law.     It  now 


374  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCEIJ,ANIES. 

goes  to  the  federal  court.  Virginia,  tlie  representative 
suitor  on  tlie  one  side,  and  New  York  on  the  other.  If  the 
Dred  Scott  decision  be  an  indication  of  the  sentiment  of 
the  court,  it  will  need  but  a  paragraph  from  that  gowned 
bench  to  strike  down  all  the  pales  and  forts  of  personal 
liberty  which  New  York  has  been  eighty  years  in  erect- 
ing. "  Resist  the  beginnings,"  is  the  motto  for  us.  But 
I  am  keeping  you  too  long  from  a  banquet,  compared 
with  which  mine  is  but  as  husks  contrasted  with  the  sup- 
pers of  the  gods.  My  eloquent  friend,*  who  lighted  the 
torch  of  his  genius  at  the  fires  of  a  freedom  which  in 
Europe  in  1848  flamed  to  the  heavens,  which  now  are 
not  smothered,  but  slumber  in  the  great  deeps  of  God's 
providence  until  the  hour  and  the  man  shall  come,  has 
learned  on  these  shores,  which  have  welcomed  him,  that 
Liberty  brings  her  richest  offerings  to  the  shrine  of 
Genius,  which,  in  turn,  pays  to  Liberty  its  homage  and 
its  worship. 

*  Carl  Schurz. 


LETTER   FROM    MADEIRA   ISLAND.  375 


LETTERS     FROM     SPAIN     AND 
PORTUGAL* 


Number    I. 


FuNCHAL,  Island  of    Madeira, 
November  77,  18^8. 

It  is  with  new  and  strange  emotions  that  one  exchanges 
the  last  adieus  with  friends  as  he  leaves  his  native  land. 
At  least  such  was  my  experience  when,  on  the  twenty- 
fifth  of  October,  I  embarked  upon  our  little  vessel  to  trust 
me  to  the  winds  and  waves  of  the  Atlantic.  Will  we 
again,  after  months  of  wanderings,  be  permitted  to  greet 
the  loved  shore,  again  to  exchange  gratulations  with 
friendship,  and  still  fonder  sentiments  with  kindred  and 
home?  A  world  of  thoughts  rushes  over,  and  almost 
overwhelms  the  soul,  as  the  last  vision  of  country  fades 
from  view,  and  one  finds  himself  fairly  parted  from  the 
shore,  Avith  only  a  plank  between  him  and  death.  Per- 
haps it  is  weakness  to  yield  to  the  sentiment  of  the  hour. 
Let  him  who  is  superior  to  such  effeminacy  enjoy  his 
granite  nature  as  best  he  may. 

I  was  fortunate  both  in  my  vessel,  and,  what  is  no 
small  consideration,  my  companionship.  Having  one 
leading  object,  health-seeking,  I  comparatively  cared 
little  whither  I  was  borne,  so  that  the  associations  were 
agreeable. 

*This  series  of  letters  was  published  in  the  Buffalo  Commercial  Advertiser 
in  1858-59. 


3/6  ADDRESSKS   AND    IM  ISC:[':i.LANIKS. 

I  took  [);issaL,^c  on  the  barque  Calcstia,  of  two  luiiulrcd 
and  fift}-  tons,  bound  for  Sicily  7'ia  Madeira,  and  found 
three  other  t,rentlemen  of  our  State  who  liad  taken 
passage  with  exactly  my  own  motives.  For  a  merchant 
vessel  of  so  small  tonnage,  a  better  could  hardly  be  found. 
By  evening  we  were  fairly  at  sea,  and  w^e  had  no  sooner 
reached  the  "  white  caps,"  than  sea-sickness  witli  all  its 
horrors  took  possession  of  me.  Over  the  first  three  days 
I  w^ould  drop  the  curtain. 

On  the  fourth  day  I  was  convalescent,  and  after  that 
my  acclimation  was  complete.  The  fifth  and  sixth  days 
out  realized  all  I  could  desire.  The  air  was  soft  and 
balmy,  the  sea  smooth  enough  to  give  an  easy  movement 
to  our  vessel,  and  we  congratulated  ourselves  over  the 
pleasing  prospect.  Magnificent  were  the  nights  succeed- 
ing those  two  days.  Until  the  small  hours  of  the  morning 
we  kept  company  with  the  stars,  singing  the  songs  of 
home,  regretful  that  our  voyage  was  to  be  but  twenty-five 
days. 

Alas!  for  our  calculations.  The  seventh  day  out 
brought  strong  west  winds  and  rain,  which,  while  they 
sped  our  vessel  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  per 
day  for  ten  days,  gave  us  very  rough  seas,  and  not  a  day 
without  heavy  rains.  Our  little  vessel  rolled  like  an  egg- 
shell ;  there  was  no  comfort  anywhere.  By  night  we  had 
a  struggle  to  keep  our  berths,  and  by  day  we  had  our 
choice  of  being  mercilessly  driven  by  rolling  seas  from 
one  side  to  the  other  of  our  little  cabin,  or  of,  with  great 
difficulty,  maintaining  a  sitting  posture  on  deck  in  rapidly 
alternating  rain  and  sunshine. 

Our  table  life,  all'  things  considered,  was  well  enough, 
but  for  the  utter  discomfort  of  a  constant  struggle  to 
prevent  a  community  of  soups,  and  collision  of  persons. 
But  wuth  these  serious  abatements,  we  had  a  fine  passage 


LETTER    FROM    MADEIRA    ISLAND.  377 

for  the  first  sixteen  da}'s.  The  seventeenth  out  was  a 
da}'  of  cahn,  and  the  eighteenth,  while  it  revealed  to  us 
in  dim  outline  the  mountains  of  Madeira,  brought  one  of 
the  severest  gales  which  for  years  has  been  known  on  this 
coast.  On  the  morning  of  the  thirteenth  of  November, 
Sunday,  we  passed  Funchal,  when  the  storm  was  at  its 
height.  That  night  was  one  of  terrific  fury.  The  winds 
howled  through  the  rigging  of  our  ship  like  a  thousand 
unleashed  demons.  The  strength  of  our  foresail  alone 
kept  us  off  the  descrtas — three  barren  rocks — of  miles  in 
extent,  lying  off  on  our  lea. 

On  land  at  last  I  Never  was  I  so  happy  to  tread  terra 
jirma.  I  was  about  sick  from  sheer  exhaustion,  had 
known  no  comfort  in  eating,  drinking  or  sleeping  for  more 
than  two  weeks,  and  during  the  last  four  days  of  storm, 
had  lost  what  little  of  philosophy  I  ever  possessed.  But 
soon  succeeded  one  of  the  most  pleasing  contrasts  of 
my  life.  After  the  examination  of  that  great  European 
anno)-ance,  passports,  I  found  myself  transferred  to  a  most 
delightful  hotel  home.  A  genuine  John  Bull  relieved 
us  of  every  care  for  baggage,  and  the  dinner,  soon  in 
readiness,  was  all  that  could  gladden  hungry  and  tempest- 
tossed  men. 

The  roast  mutton  and  chickens  !  the  green  peas !  the 
whole  circle  of  tropical  vegetables,  and  all  done  to  a 
charm.  Then  the  oranges  from  the  garden  upon  which 
our  dining-room  opens,  itself  a  "  wilderness  of  sweets," 
the  banana,  the  custard  and  pineapples,  etc.,  etc.,  and 
last,  but  greatest  and  best,  a  cup  of  English  breakfast 
tea,  luscious  as  the  nectar  upon  which  Homer's  gods 
were  wont  to  regale — are  not  these  to  be  gratefully 
remembered  ?  Then  to  exchange  our  pent-up  and  illy- 
ventilated  sleeping-rooms  for  cleanly  and  spacious  apart- 
ments ;  our  ship's  linen,  which  would  have  served  the  gay 
25 


3/8  ADDRIOSSKS    AND    MISCELLANIES. 

ladies  of  Windsor  in  their  plot  of  mischief  aj^^ainst  that 
"  fast  man,"  Falstaff,  for  "sheets  that  smell  of  laventler," 
and  invite  to  a  repose  sweet  as  infancy,  my  word  for  it, 
were  enough  to  excite  a  stoic's  enthusiasm. 

But  the  sea  !  I  have  one  or  two  practical  observations 
thereon.  I  entertain  no  doubt  that  it  has  done  much  for 
navigation.  I  yield  this  without  argument.  But  the 
poetry  of  the  sea  I  think  somewhat,  as  our  friend  Rogers 
would  say,  "  humbugeous ! "  It  was  doubtless  very 
pleasant  for  young  master  Byron  to  go  down  to  the  shore 
when  ocean  was  asleep,  or  weary  from  his  tempest  battles, 
and  lay  his  hand  on  the  old  fellow's  mane,  at  least  he 
says  so  ;  but  to  be  on  the  sea  day  after  day  and  week 
after  week,  the  eye  ever  resting  on  the  same  illimitable 
extent,  the  same  rising  and  sinking  of  the  waves  of  the 
sea,  the  same  play  and  dash  of  its  waters,  is  soon — at 
least  such  is  my  experience — to  become  tired  of  its 
monotony.  Emerson  says  there  is  but  one  first  view  of 
a  fine  picture.  I  know  there  is  but  one  first  of  the  ocean 
for  me.  I  had  mine  three  years  since  at  Nahant.  I  have 
seen  in  three  weeks  a  hundred  times  as  much  of  the  ocean 
as  I  saw  then,  but  nothing  approaching  the  magnificence 
which  ravished  almost  every  sense  at  that  first  moonlight 
view.  Poetry  and  music  have  run  mad  over  the  sea  in 
its  wilder  moods ;  I  have  myself  sung  with  great  success, 
"I'm  afloat!  I'm  afloat!"  to  admiring  audiences!  but  I 
would  say  to  the  friends  who  have  kindly  assisted  me  on 
such  occasions,  that  "  I'm  afloat,"  in  the  parlor,  amid 
social  grace  and  beauty,  where  love  and  friendship  unite 
to  swell  the  chorus,  is  vastly  more  charming  than  on  the 
"  wide  rolling  tide."  The  lightnings  verily  do  "  appal," 
and  the  rover  is  not  half  so  "  free  "  as  the  song  pretends. 

The  island  of  Madeira,  discovered  about  four  hundred 
years  ago  by  a  Portuguese   voyager,  lies  about  32  deg. 


LETTER    FROM    MADEIRA    ISLAND.  379 

north  latitude,  and  between  the  longitude  of  16  deg.  and 
17  deg.  west  of  Greenwich.  It  is  about  twelve  miles  in 
width  and  thirty  in  length.  Funchal  is  the  only  town  of 
importance,  and  has  a  population  of  about  twenty  thou- 
sand. Its  harbor  is  a  mere  roadstead  of  the  ocean,  where 
is  an  indentation  into  the  shore  somewhat  of  a  crescent 
form,  for  about  three  miles.  At  either  end  of  this  low 
land  rises  an  unbroken  line  of  immense  rocks,  hundreds 
of  feet  in  height,  forming  a  natural  rampart  nearly  around 
the  island.  From  high  water-mark  along  the  crescent, 
back  for  perhaps  twenty  rods,  is  a  gentle  elevation  until 
a  point  about  fifty  feet  above  the  sea  is  attained,  then 
follows  a  plain  of  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  and  then 
begins  to  stretch  out  an  amphitheatre,  rising  at  an  aver- 
age angle  of  at  least  forty  degrees,  until  it  reaches  an 
elevation  of  about  three  thousand  feet.  The  view  of  the 
city  as  it  appears  on  approach  from  the  sea  is  surpassingly 
beautiful.  While  there  is  no  one  building  particularly 
attractive  except  the  fort  and  the  Mountain  Church,  the 
entire  architecture  of  the  city  is  brilliantly  white,  and  the 
residences  of  the  wealthier  classes  are  scattered  over  this 
amphitheatre  to  its  summit.  The  sugar-cane  clothes  the 
ground  with  the  hues  of  tropical  vegetation.  The  back- 
bone of  the  mountain  is  broken  by  many  deep  ravines 
which  impart  a  wild  aspect  to  the  whole  scene. 

Funchal  is  a  finished  city.  I  have  observed  but  one 
building  in  process  of  construction— a  hospital.  But  it 
was  built  at  first  for  all  time.  The  buildings  are  all  of 
stone,  with  walls  of  immense  thickness,  eighteen  to  twenty- 
four  inches,  and  plastered  with  a  hard  white  finish.  A 
shabby  building  is  rarely  to  be  seen.  The  little  homes  of 
the  peasantry  are  also  of  stone. 

The  first  novelty  that  meets  the  eye  of  a  stranger  on 
landing   is   the    method  of   locomotion.      On  our  arrival 


380  ADDRESSKS   AND    MISCELLANIKS. 

tro(ips  of  men  and  boys  were  anxious  to  serve  us.  But 
ill  the  place  of  carts  and  omnibusses,  we  found  wliat  are 
very  like  our  farm  stone-boats,  beinL(  about  eighteen  inches 
in  w  idth  and  six  feet  in  length,  drawn  by  a  yoke  of  small 
oxen.  These  do  the  entire  "  carting"  of  the  city.  These 
for  our  baggage.  For  ourselves  were  saddled  ponies,  and 
carriage  bodies  set  on  coarse  runners,  and  these  drawn 
by  oxen.  With  two  or  three  exceptions,  there  is  not  a 
wheeled  vehicle  on  the  island.  The  methods  described, 
and  the  palanquin  and  hammock  borne  on  the  shoulders 
of  two  men  by  means  of  a  pole,  constitute  all  the  methods 
of  transportation  of  persons  about  the  city.  The  fashion- 
able "  turnout"  is  a  well  upholstered  carriage  body  on  an 
ox-sled,  drawn  by  a  yoke  of  demure-looking  cattle,  having 
a  man  by  their  side  and  a  boy  in  front.  This  takes  to 
church,  to  shopping  errands,  to  calls  of  fashion  and  scenes 
of  pleasure.  A  stranger  is  soon  familiarized  with  this 
method  of  locomotion,  and  acknowledges  its  good  sense. 
The  reason  is  twofold.  Time  is  of  little  consideration, 
and  an  extent  of  about  two  miles  in  length,  and  a  half 
mile  in  width,  is  all  that  will  admit  of  carriage  of  persons 
in  any  sort  of  vehicle.  This  method  of  transportation 
through  the  streets,  together  with  the  general  quiet  of  the 
town,  makes  the  city  as  still  as  a  New  England  hamlet. 
The  peasantry  use  their  heads  for  transportation  purposes, 
as  do  German  peasant  women. 

There  is  one  animal  of  burthen  of  which  I  must  not 
omit  to  make  honorable  mention.  It  is  the  ass.  Hun- 
dreds of  them  come  into  the  city  daily  from  the  interior, 
a  much-abused  and  sorry-looking  race.  Yesterday  I  saw 
a  troop  of  a  dozen  laden  with  wine  casks.  As  they  strug- 
gled under  their  vinous  burthens  they  were  the  image  of 
despair.  They  looked  anxious  to  sign  a  petition  for  the 
Maine  law   for  Madeira.      Poor  fellows,    I    couldn't  help 


LETTER    FROM    MADEIRA   ISLAND.  38 1 

them.  Funchal  is  literally  a  walled  city.  From  the  time 
the  streets  begin  to  ascend  from  the  plain  I  have  men- 
tioned, they  are  walled  until  a  height  of  at  least  two 
thousand  feet  from  the  sea  is  attained.  The  walls  are 
from  ten  to  thirty  feet  in  height,  and  stuccoed.  They 
exclude  the  private  mansions  from  view.  The  tops  and 
sides  of  these  walls  sometimes  present  a  scene  of  great 
floral  beauty,  covered  as  they  are  with  the  finest  tropical 
vines,  which  in  their  rank  luxuriance  often  come  quite 
down  to  the  street.  There,  overhanging  your  head,  are 
the  banana,  the  orange,  indeed  all  the  fruit  trees  of  the 
clime.  Some  forms  of  the  cactus  are  found  ever}^where, 
by  the  road-side,  on  the  mountains,  in  the  rocks  by  the 
way,  presenting  a  scene  of  great  beauty.  Some  of  the 
gardens  of  the  wealthier  English  and  Portuguese  surpass 
in  beauty  and  luxury  all  I  have  ever  conceived  of  trop- 
ical splendor.  I  have  visited  the  garden  of  a  Mr.  Davies  ; 
it  must  occupy,  with  his  splendid  mansion,  about  four 
acres  of  ground,  his  summer-house  being  built  directly  on 
the  cliff  which  juts  over  the  sea,  and  elevated  about  two 
hundred  feet  above  the  ocean.  Seemingly  his  garden 
represented  the  whole  botanical  kingdom.  Milton's  Para- 
dise seemed  to  me  literally  realized. 

"  Groves  where  rich  trees  wept  odorous  gums  and  balm ; 
Others,  whose  fruit,  burnished  with  golden  rind, 
Hung  amiable.     Hesperian  fables,  true, 
If  true,  here  only,  and  of  delicious  taste. 
Flowers  of  all  hue,  and  without  thorn  the  ifose." 

Four  small  streams  pass  through  the  town.  These  are 
walled  in  in  the  same  manner,  and  their  banks  planted 
with  the  buttonwood  tree.  These  streams  are  the  wash- 
tubs  of  Funchal.  The  city  is  everywhere  cleanly  and 
well  watered. 


382  ADDRKSSliS   AND    MISCEI.LANIKS. 

Its  fruit,  fish  and  meat  markets  are  substantial  and 
excellent. 

Tlie  island  has  some  of  the  grandest  scenery  in  the 
world.  Travelers  say  it  is  second  only  to  that  of  Switz- 
erland. I  shall  attempt  no  description  of  the  "  Grand 
Curral,"  nor  of  the  lesser  views.  They  are  daily  visited, 
costing  the  ascent  of  five  thousand  feet,  in  hammocks 
borne  by  men,  or  upon  sure-footed  ponies,  ever  attended 
by  the  burriquero  (attendant),  who  holds  on  to  the  tail  of 
the  pony,  while  you  struggle  to  maintain  your  position  in 
the  saddle.  Deep  ravines,  jagged  and  sky-piercing  rocks, 
innumerable  waterfalls  interspersed  with  patches  of  culti- 
vation, danger,  weariness,  all  these  are  indelibly  associated 
with  my  views  of  the  island. 

"  Mount  Church "  is  a  fine  edifice,  two  thousand  feet 
above  the  sea,  a  most  wearisome  ascent  on  horseback. 
.  Visitors  generally  ride  down  the  mountain  on  a  sledge. 
This  is  a  willow  box  with  comfortable  seats  placed  on 
runners.  It  is  guided  by  two  men,  and  its  own  momentum 
propels  it  a  mile  and  a  half  in  about  twelve  minutes.  The 
plaza  in  the  center  of  the  city  is  beautifully  shaded,  and 
has  inviting  seats  for  the  lazy  and  weary,  which,  in  this 
enervating  climate,  will  not  invite  the  stranger  in  vain. 
On  Sunday  afternoon  a  band  of  music  is  stationed  here  at 
four  o'clock,  and  makes  "brazen  melody"  for  the  crowds 
who  seek  this  retreat  after  the  services  of  the  church.  I 
have  been  interested  in  the  peasantry  of  Funchal.  If 
they  have  their  vices,  they  have  their  virtues,  and  among 
the  latter  I  would  mention  their  politeness.  When  meet- 
ing each  other  the  peasant  cap  is  always  removed  from 
the  head,  and  the  civil  bow  exchanged.  The  same  civil- 
ity marks  their  treatment  of  strangers.  This  external 
courtesy  is    the   rule.      Perhaps   manners   can    hardly  be 


LETTER    FROM    LISBON.  383 

esteemed  a  virtue,  but  they  certainly  impart  a  grace  to 
life  in  its  humblest  as  well  as  its  most  exalted  types  and 
relations. 

The  peasantry  seem  happy.  The}'  work  hard  for  small 
wages,  and  have  large  families  ;  but  they  are  cheerful, 
musical,  and,  I  think,  contented.  They  are  sadly  belied, 
if  truth  and  honesty  in  transactions  are  distinguishing 
virtues.  Possibly  economy  in  these  elements  of  character 
may  be  found  outside  of  Portuguese  dominions. 

Progress  and  invention  are  here  unknown.  All  improve- 
ments in  implements  and  styles  are  rank  heresies.  The 
island  belongs  to  Portugal,  whose  political  institutions 
are  modeled  after  those  of  Great  Britain.  There  is  now 
toleration  in  religion  for  foreign  Protestants,  but  the 
Roman  Catholic  religion  is  the  only  one  permitted  to 
the  Portuguese.  Pains  and  penalties  are  the  price  of 
native  dissent. 

So  much  for  Funchal  and  the  island  of  Madeira.  We 
expect  to  sail  for  Sicily  on  the  twenty-sixth  instant. 


Number  II. 


Lisbon,  December  /y,  1838. 

I  told  you  in  a  former  letter  that  I  should  sail  for  Sicily 
on  the  twenty-sixth  ult.  We  set  sail  as  proposed,  but  on 
the  first  morning  out  were  run  into  by  an  iron  steamer  of 
three  thousand  tons.  Fortunately  it  gave  us  a  side  blow 
or  we  had  gone  to  the  bottom  in  a  twinkling.  As  it  was, 
a  sharp  naval  engagement  could  hardly  have  more  com- 
pletely dismantled  us — not  a  mast  was  left  standing.  We 
put  back  to  Funchal  whence  I  took  steamer  for  Lisbon, 
a    passage    of    sixty    hours.     The    boat    was    thoroughly 


384  ADDRESSKS    AND    MISCKLLANIKS. 

English  ill  its  comforts,  the  ca[)tain  a  j^cnuiiic  John  Bull, 
and  a  decided  character.  lie  had  a  most  decided  faith 
ill  the  Church,  in  her  bishops  and  in  Victoria.  He  said 
the  ^race  at  dinner  much  as  he  would  have  carried  a 
siege,  by  storm  and  in  a  great  hurry.  Dinner  over,  he 
was  "  in  merry  pin,"  and  once  held  me  a  long  hour  in 
reciting  his  exploits  in  the  first  China,  the  Indian  and 
Crimean  wars.  He  planted  the  first  English  flag  on  the 
fort  at  Amoy,  in  China;  his  vessel  towed  up  the  first 
elephants  for  the  Indian  war  to  Calcutta,  and  he  had  per- 
formed divers  exploits  which  were  promised  adequate 
reward,  but  as  yet  he  was  left  to  feed  upon  the  conscious- 
ness that  he  deserved  a  monument  more  enduring  than 
brass,  and  that  it  is  sweet  and  beautiful  to  serve  one's 
country,  even  short  of  the  death  point. 

I  heartily  relished  so  positive  a  character,  wearied  as  I 
was  with  the  insipidity  of  the  Madeira  Portuguese.  The 
ceremonial  politeness  of  the  latter  at  first  attracted  me, 
but  when  I  found  it  in  the  poor  associated  with  great 
ignorance  and  universal  mendicancy,  with  few  elements  to 
command  respect,  however  much  they  might  your  sym- 
pathy, and  when  among  the  higher  classes,  I  found  it 
generally  associated  with  indolence,  effeminacy,  a  tena- 
cious clinging  to  the  shadow  of  an  ancestral  respectability, 
without  the  slightest  effort  to  achieve  anything  for  them- 
selves, I  was  right  glad  to  take  John  Bull  by  the  hand. 
Gruff  and  surly  as  he  often  is,  he  is  the  type  of  energy 
and  conquest,  and  his  very  audacity,  trampling  as  it  often 
does  upon  social  manners,  helps  to  make  English  char- 
acter one  of  the  chief  motors  of  modern  progress.  A 
thorough-bred  mastiff  is,  for  practical  purposes,  worth  a 
universe  of  poodles. 

On  the  morning  of  the  tenth,  we  found  ourselves  mak- 
ing our  way  up  the  Tagus,  on  whose  bank  is  situate  the 


LETTER   FROM    LISBON.  385 

city  of  Lisbon.  The  approach  frcnn  the  sea  is  very  pretty. 
The  hill-tops,  which  rise  from  either  bank  of  the  river, 
exhibited  a  novel  spectacle.  They  are  crowned  with 
wind-mills  which,  on  this  breezy  morn,  were  all  in  motion. 
I  counted  over  a  hundred  in  a  distance  of  not  to  exceed 
a  mile.  A  chivalric  imagination  might  easily  fancy  them 
defiant  and  challenging  to  combat.  Indeed,  instanter,  I 
changed  my  life-long  views  of  the  gallant  charge  of  Don 
Quixote  upon  the  army  of  these  menacing  agencies. 
With  the  Don's  peculiarities,  full  of  the  chivalry  of  his 
day,  ready  for  any  high  emprise,  I  am  certain  such  an 
array  as  the  Tagus  presents  would  have  unsheathed  the 
sword  of  a  less  valiant  hero.  When  disposed  to  under- 
value his  prowess,  let  us  remember  that  wind-mills  were 
not  as  well  understood  in  his  day  as  in  ours.  The  world 
has  moved  several  pegs  since  the  time  of  his  exploits. 

Madame  Bolt's  hotel  is  tJie  public  house  of  Lisbon,  and 
there  I  am  ticketed  from  Madeira.  On  approach,  it 
seems  more  like  a  well-secured  warehouse  than  a  hotel, 
bolted  and  barred  as  it  was,  opening  only  in  answer  to 
the  bell  summons.  The  proprietor  will  show  me  the 
rooms.  By  the  way,  these  "  family  hotels,"  I  think,  a 
great  improvement  on  the  little  single  bedroom  and  tablc- 
d'hote  system.  He  thinks  the  parlor  and  bedroom  on  the 
third  floor  will  please  me,  for  it  has  in  connection — what 
do  you  think  ? — a  private  chapel !  Sure  enough,  on  the 
one  side  of  a  very  handsomely-furnished  private  parlor  is 
a  well-equipped  bedroom,  and  on  the  other  side,  ap- 
proached by  folding  doors,  the  promised  chapel  with  its 
altar,  its  crucifix,  its  paintings  of  saints,  angels,  the 
Madonna,  the  infant  Saviour,  etc.,  reflecting  more  credit 
upon' the  devoteeism  of  the  founder  than  on  Portuguese 
art.  And  here  excuse  a  digression  upon  the  establish- 
ment of  these  private  chapels  in   Portugal,  for  they  illus- 


386  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

tratc  a  part  of  the  State  polity  in  connection  with  the 
national  religion.  In  Portugal,  estates  may  be  entailed, 
provided  they  have  an  income  adecjuate  to  the  dignity  of 
an  entailment,  by  consent  of  the  government ;  but  one 
of  the  conditions  of  the  permit  is  the  establishment  and 
maintenance,  by  the  proprietor,  of  a  chapel,  either  on  his 
own  land  or  elsewhere.  This  hotel  is  part  of  an  entailed 
estate,  and  this,  the  chapel,  founded  in  accordance  with 
the  law,  whose  erection  is  also  by  special  permit  of  the 
Pope,  and  by  due  and  proper  rites  of  consecration.  Ikit 
the  maintenance  has  been  transferred  to  some  other  chapel 
by  permission. 

As  these  rooms  open  upon  a  fine  balcony,  and  com- 
mand a  full  view  of  the  harbor  and  of  the  Tagus  for  miles 
in  either  direction,  and  of  the  towns  and  range  of  hills 
on  the  opposite  shore,  I  acquiesce  in  my  landlord's 
decision. 

Lisbon,  without  being  a  very  brilliant  city,  has  its  own 
attractions.  Much  of  it  has  been  built  upon  the  ruins  of 
the  earthquake  of  1755,  and  a  portion  upon  land  made 
into  the  river  Tagus.  You  land  at  the  custom  house. 
Here  is  a  fine  square  of  about  six  or  eight  acres,  in  the 
center  of  which  is  a  colossal  equestrian  statue  of  Joseph  I. 
The  three  sides  of  the  square,  except  the  river  front, 
are  built  up  very  handsomely  and  uniformly  with  revenue 
and  other  public  buildings.  The  new  part  of  the  city 
beginning  here,  is  as  regular  as  Philadelphia — its  blocks 
being  in  uniform  style  of  stone  and  stuccoed  white.  The 
older  portion  of  the  town  is  up  hill  and  down  dale,  and 
defiant  of  all  regularity  and  style.  Monuments  of  the 
earthquake  of  1755  are  to  be  seen  in  all  this  section  of 
the  city.  Especially  have  the  old  convents  and  monas- 
teries been  left  undisturbed  by  human  hand.  Their  out- 
side walls  are  standing,  the  roofs  having  fallen,  crushing 


LETTER    FROM    LISBON.  387 

ill  their  course  the  unforewariied  inmates.  I  visited  two 
of  these  monuments  of  that  terrible  destruction.  There 
are  the  cloisters  of  the  doomed  occupants  ;  wild  weeds 
hang  over  the  broken  ruins,  and  the  mould  of  a  century 
intensifies  the  gloomy  scene. 

There  are  no  public  buildings  specially  worthy  of 
notice,  except  the  churches  and  the  new  palace  of  the 
king.  The  French  carried  off  the  fine  pictures  of  Lisbon 
during  the  Peninsular  war  and  forgot  to  return  them  ! 

The  public  grounds  are  small  but  tasteful.  They  have 
broad  promenades,  flower-beds,  clusters  of  shrubbery, 
artificial  ponds,  statuary,  inviting  seats,  stations  for  bands 
of  music,  and  among  the  shrubs  the  orange  tree  now 
laden  with  ripe  fruitage,  and  roses  of  every  variety,  some 
of  which  are  now  in  full  bloom.  During  these  afternoons 
of  clear  sky  and  delicious  air,  these  parks  afford  a  brilliant 
scene,  as  the  promenades  are  threaded  by  "  the  beauty 
and  fashion  "  of  the  town. 

I  visited  one  of  the  military  hospitals.  I  could  suggest 
no  improvement.  A  very  polite  gentleman  took  me 
through  all  the  wards  into  the  library  of  about  two  thou- 
sand volumes,  into  its  medicinal  department,  etc.,  talking 
most  volubly  all  the  time  in  Portuguese,  of  which  I 
understood  not  one  word.  The  more  I  told  him  I  did 
"  not  comprehend,"  the  more  volubly  he  pelted  me  with 
courteous  Portuguese.  He  was  manifestly  delighted  to 
exhibit  the  hospital  to  the  "  Americana." 

The  parliament  house  is  one  of  the  many  immense 
convents  and  monasteries  confiscated  by  the  new  govern- 
ment. By  the  courtesy  of  a  member,  I  had  an  eligible 
seat  during  a  day's  session.  I  understood  nothing  that 
was  said,  but  much  enjoyed  the  spirit  and  temper  of  the 
debate.  The  Portuguese,  like  the  French,  speak  with 
energ}'  and    constant    gesticulation.     Withal    there    is    a 


388  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

prevailing  courtes)-  in  their  discussions.  The  ([uestion  of 
that  (hi}'  was  ui)on  a  call  on  the  niinistr\-  to  produce  the 
documents  relative  to  the  recent  controversy  with  the 
French  government,  growing  out  of  the  arrest  of  a  slaver. 
(No  escape  from  the  everlasting  slavery  cjuestion,  you  see, 
even  in  Portugal.)  The  attack  on  the  ministry  was  by 
the  leader  of  the  opposition,  one  of  the  lean,  Cassius  sort 
of  men,  nervous,  wiry,  bold  and  audacious.  He  looked 
like  a  man  for  opposition.  His  manner  was  very  ener- 
getic and,  judging  from  the  "hear  him,"  "hear  him," 
(in  Portuguese),  which  rose  almost  to  the  storm  point,  I 
concluded  it  was  satisfactory  to  his  party.  I  hoped  to 
hear  the  prime  minister.  Marquis  of  Lola,  in  reply,  but 
was  disappointed.  He  is  a  model  of  courtliness  and  per- 
sonal elegance.  Nothing  could  exceed  his  calm,  self- 
possessed  and  utterly  undisturbed  air,  amid  the  war  of 
words  made  upon  him.  The  reply  was  by  the  minister 
of  finance,  which  seemed  conclusive.  The  end  of  that 
French  controversy  is,  that  as  France  is  strong  and  Port- 
ugal is  weak,  the  latter  yields,  pays  for  the  vessel,  and 
Napoleon  protects  his  slave-ship  from  scrutiny  and  arrest 
by  placing  an  official  agent  on  board.  His  diplomatic 
lies  are  to  be  received  as  truth,  because  they  are  official, 
and  there  are  guns  behind  for  demonstration. 

I  think  the  appearance  of  the  Portuguese  Cortes  would 
compare  favorably  with  most  parliamentary  bodies  I  have 
seen  in  the  United  States,  always  excepting  the  Senate 
of  the  United  States.     The  house  of  peers  I  did  not  see. 

The  public  police  of  Lisbon  are  soldiers  of  the  stand- 
ing army.  They  are  to  be  seen  everywhere,  at  churches, 
public  grounds,  at  the  parliament  house  and  hospitals, 
indeed  at  all  public  places  and  at  every  turn  of  the 
street. 


LETTER   FROM    LISBON.  389 

The  scenci'}'  about  Lisbon  reminds  me  of  much  I  have 
seen  at  home.  A  ride  into  the  country  brings  you  into 
a  landscape  of  hills,  valley  and  plain,  which  at  once  brings 
New  England  at  midsummer  to  mind.  The  olive  substi- 
tuted for  the  apple  orchards,  and  nature  is  the  counter- 
part of  New  England  scenery.  Rut  when,  in  a  ride  of 
five  miles,  you  meet  two  hundred  asses  loaded  down  with 
chickens,  vegetables,  babies,  wine  casks,  indeed  every 
product  of  the  country,  and  hear  constantly  that  horrible 
bray,  "  grating  harsh  thunder,"  you  fail  to  recognize  the 
railroads  of  New  England  in  the  transportation  power  of 
Portugal.  The  old  and  now  deserte.d  monasteries  here 
and  there  on  the  hill-tops,  the  little  chapel  with  the  cross, 
and  some  rudely-executed  piece  of  sculpture  fairly  bronzed 
by  time,  and  occasionally  the  cross  itself  by  the  road-side, 
bearing  a  date  a  century  anterior  to  our  Declaration  of 
American  Independence,  all  these  will  be  sure  to  dispel 
the  illusion  and  impress  upon  you  the  conviction  that  you 
are  not  in  native  land,  and  more,  that  you  would  not 
exchange  native  land  with  its  intelligence,  its  activities, 
its  moral  and  its  material  power,  for  a  thousand  Portugals. 

Lisbon  can  get  up  a  very  pretty  sunset.  It  has  all  the 
requisite  materials.  Come  with  me  on  to  the  balcony  from 
my  room.  The  lower  edge  of  the  sun  is  just  going  below 
that  point  of  land  which  runs  down  to  the  sea.  In  the 
distance  is  the  ocean,  and  the  Tagus  is  full  ten  miles  in 
view,  and  its  surface  calm  as  an  infant's  slumber.  Oppo- 
site is  a  fine  town,  and  the  range  of  hills  behind  it,  has 
that  half-twilight  obscure  with  which  the  haze  of  an 
Indian  summer  envelopes  a  New  England  landscape. 
Now  the  sun  is  just  out  of  sight,  leaving  a  sky  soft  and 
beautiful.  Everything  is  in  repose.  Not  a  cloud  moves 
of  all  that  cover  the  western  part  of  the  heavens,  clouds 
of  every  hue,  from  the  deep  purple  "  fretted  with  golden 


390  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCEIJ,ANTES. 

fire,"  to  the  mi")st  delicate  blendinij  of  colors  that  ever 
defied  your  powers  of  description.  y\bove,  the  sky  is 
pure  cerulean.  The  moon?  No  matter  about  her.  She 
seems  very  comfortable  and  "  rides  majestic."  But  the 
wind-mills  !  Ah  !  there  they  are,  at  least  a  hundred,  and 
all  with  folded  arms,  not  a  breath  to  ruffle  the  .most  nerv- 
ous of  the  host.  Had  Don  Quixote  found  the  army  on 
which  he  made  that  valorous  onslaught  which  has  made 
him  the  laugh  of  this  scoffing  generation,  in  as  gentle 
and  subdued  a  mood  as  are  those  which  crown  yonder 
heights,  and  seem  with  me  struck  by  the  enchantment 
of  the  scene,  my  word  for  it,  the  Don  would  have  suf- 
fered his  sword  to  slumber  in  its  scabbard  to  this  day, 
ere  he  had  attacked  an  army  so  pacific. 

The  Tagus  at  Lisbon  reminds  me  of  the  Hudson  at 
Albany.  With  its  winding  course,  its  ample  breadth,  its 
shores  bordered  by  continuous  villages  flanked  by  a 
range  of  hills,  and  bearing  a  richly-freighted  commerce 
as  it  flows  with  majesty  on  to  the  sea,  it  is  very  like. 

From  here  to  Cadiz,  to-morrow. 


Number   III. 


Cadiz,  December  2f,  1838. 
The  French  language  is  the  medium  of  expression 
among  the  Babel  tongues  of  Europe.  I  pray  you,  don't 
come  abroad  until  you  can  speak  this  universal  social 
language.  If  you  do,  after  this  warning,  you  will 
deserve  to  get  everything  you  don't  want,  and  noth- 
ing you  do.  And  you  will  yourself  be,  though  a  harp 
of  a  thousand  strings,  an  instrument  hung  up  in  a  case, 
without   one   audible    note  of   melody  or  concert.     For 


LETTER   FROM    CADIZ.  39 1 

the  English  language  in  Portugal  and  Spain  is  almost — 
no  ivJicre.  One  warning  further  and  I  have  done. 
Never  come  into  Spain  unless  you  are  reconciled  to 
constant,  and  everywhere,  smoking.  In  the  diligence, 
close  as  curtains  and  shutters  can  make  it,  in  the  cabin 
of  the  steamboat,  while  women  and  children  are  almost 
dying  with  sea-sickness,  at  breakfast,  at  dinner,  and  with- 
out the  slightest  apology  or  "  by  your  leave,"  the  Span- 
iard is  a  perpetual  Vesuvius.  I  have  hardly  seen  a  streak 
of  clear  air  since  I  came  into  Spain.  Workmen  smoke 
at  labor,  the  cook  smokes  while  getting  your  dinner,  man- 
ufacturing his  paper-cigar  while  engaged  in  the  most  del- 
icate duties  of  his  profession.  And  nobody  except  an 
American  has  the  temerity  to  complain.  Will  it  not  be 
wise  to  prepare  in  advance  for  this  excess  of  a  good 
thing  ? 

It  was  half-regretfully  that  I  parted  with  Lisbon  on 
the  seventeenth  instant.  For  the  picturesque  and  beau- 
tiful in  nature,  for  neat  and  well-paved  streets,  for  attract- 
ive public  grounds,  for  a  clear,  dry  and  exhilarating 
atmosphere,  upon  which  one  seems  almost  to  float,  one 
can  hardly  hope  to  often  find  a  city  surpassing  the  capital 
of  Portugal.  Beautiful  is  she  to  view,  as  we  float  on  the 
Tagus  to  the  sea.  The  vision  enraptured  the  soul  of 
Byron  as  he  sung  : 

What  beauties  doth  Lisboa  first  unfold, 
Her  image  floating  on  that  noble  tide. 

As  her  lofty  towers  grow  dim  in  the  distance,  you  are 
greeted  by  the  famed  Cintra  with  its  remains  of  the 
Moorish  ascendancy.  This  passed,  and  w^e  are  again  on 
the  broad  ocean.     Sixty  hours  brings  us  to 

"  Fair  Cadiz  rising  o'er  the  dark -blue  sea." 


392  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

There  is  but  little  to  sa)'  of  this  ancient  cit)'  in  Murope, 
except  that  it  is  one  of  the  prettiest  and  neatest  towns 
in  the  world.  Its  bay  is  exceedingly  beautiful,  and  Cadiz, 
with  its  lines  of  uniform  white  buildings,  with  the  uni- 
versal balcony  and  green  blind,  is  at  once  unique  and 
pleasing.  It  has  seventy  thousand  inhabitants,  with  nar- 
row but  well-paved  and  cleanly  streets,  and  is  a  walled 
and  strongly-fortified  city.  The  only  building  specially 
worthy  of  notice  is  the  new  cathedral,  built  entirely  of 
niarljle.  I  have  seen  nothing  A\'here  the  interior  archi- 
tecture pleased  me  more.  Its  lofty  arches,  sustained  by 
groups  of  Corinthian  pillars,  and  the  absence  of  that 
meretricious  adorning  found  in  the  older  churches,  give  it 
a  grand  and  imposing  effect. 

Its  Casino,  or  Club  House,  is  sumptuous  in  its  material 
comforts.  Spain  loves  pleasure,  and  all  its  considerable 
towns  have  their  Casino,  which  combines  library,  reading- 
room,  restaurant,  gambling-tables,  drinking-saloon,  in- 
deed, every  conceivable  indulgence  which  a  sensuous 
people  can  crave.  I  would  say  that  Pleasure  is  the  pre- 
siding divinity  of  this  country.  The  climate  is  soft  and 
invites  to  out-door  amusements.  Hence  the  public  parks 
and  grounds  are  the  every-day  resorts  of  all  classes  and 
conditions.  Hence,  too,  the  mirthfulness  of  the  common 
people,  who  in  these  holiday  times  may  be  seen  at  almost 
every  town  in  the  country,  dancing  in  groups  on  the 
green  to  the  music  of  the  tamborine  and  guitar.  The 
common  wines  are  cheap,  and  everybody  indulges  in  what 
cheers  if  it  does  not  inebriate.  They  have  the  excitable 
temperament  of  the  Southern  races,  and  bull-fights,  cir- 
cuses, theatres,  and  pageants  sacred  as  well  as  profane,  are 
the  staple  amusements.  The  soil  is  fertile  and  there  is 
little  to  stimulate  the  energy  of  the  masses.  Therefore 
Spain    is  what    she    is  in  her    decadence,   dwelling  amid 


LETTF.R    FROM    CADIZ.  393 

nionunicnts  of  a  past  that  was  glorious,  of  a  power  loni^ 
since  departed.  Tliiiik  of  Spain  under  Charles  V.,  dic- 
tating" the  pohcy  of  all  Europe,  the  central  energy  of  the 
Western  Nations,  and  think  of  her  as  she  is  now,  so  con- 
temptible as  a  power,  that  the  President  of  the  United 
States  can  say  with  impunity  that  it  is  very  inconvenient 
to  us  for  her  to  hold  Cuba  as  a  colony,  and  that  she  had 
better  relax  her  grasp  before  she  feels  the  force  of  the 
American  Eagle  who  is  now  whetting  his  talons  to  take 
the  Sugar  Island  as  a  morning  lunch. 

Yet  Spain  has  contact  enough  with  the  superior  nations 
to  feel  a  spur  in  the  sides  of  her  intent.  I  saw-  the  evi- 
dence of  this  at  the  Arsenal,  about  five  miles  out  of 
Cadiz.  I  found  it  alive  with  preparations  to  resist,  if  not 
to  attack.  A  half-mile  of  new  and  old  buildings,  all  fill- 
ing up  with  the  best  machinery  for  naval  and  military 
work,  and  that  all  from  Manchester,  England.  Not  only 
so,  but  I  found  fifteen  Englishmen,  acting  as  the  foremen 
in  the  different  shops.  How  easy  to  tell  w^hich  was  the 
master-mind  among  that  mass  of  humanity  !  It  was  not 
the  man  lighting  or  smoking  his  paper-cigar  with  stupid 
aspect.  It  is  that  florid  man,  with  sandy  whiskers  and 
rotund  person,  wath  a  steam-engine  energy  in  his  face, 
giving  movement  and  purpose  to  the  whole  mass  around 
him,  and  reducing  Spanish  chaos,  so  far  as  is  possible,  to 
English  order.  I  found  also  two  Massachusetts  men,  who 
had  finished  the  railroads  of  their  own  State,  and  were 
now  building  ships  of  war  for  Spain.  With  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  race  to  teach  her  how  to  think  and  how  to  act,  to 
vitalize  and  energize  this  stagnant  material,  Spain,  possi- 
bly, may  yet  be  able  to  say  and  maintain  that  it  is  very 
convenient  for  her  to  hold  Cuba.  She  may  do  more — 
assume  a  place  among  the  nations  as  a  progressive  and 
liberal  people. 
26 


394  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

But  man)',  \'cr}'  many  \on<^  strides  lias  slic  to  take  be- 
fore she  occupies  this  position.  First,  she  must  grant 
complete  toleration  to  the  Protestant  religion,  and  thus 
invite  emigration  to  come  and  open  up  her  rich  mineral 
mountains  and  highways  for  social  communication  and  for 
commerce.  She  must  educate  her  people,  and  create 
what  she  most  needs  as  a  political  and  a  moral  force,  a 
great  middle  class  which  the  State  cannot  ignore,  and 
will  be  bound  to  respect.  She  must  have  a  stable  gov- 
ernment, to  give  confidence  to  trade  and  capital.  She 
must  rid  herself  of  her  enormous  standing-army,  which 
forces  all  her  young  men  away  from  trades  and  other  use- 
ful occupations,  into  the  military  or  naval  service,  until 
they  are  fit  for  nothing  else.  She  must  have  an  able 
head  as  king,  who  is  neck  and  neck  with  the  times — a 
man  who  will  devote  his  energies  to  the  best  development 
of  the  resources  of  the  country.  Then  Spain  will  be,  cer- 
tainly compared  with  her  present  condition,  a  great 
power. 

But  to  such  a  revolution,  which  can  emanate  only  from 
great  moral  and  mental  forces,  I  believe  the  Spaniards  of 
this  age  utterly  inadequate.  Missouri  is  not  richer  in 
mineral  resources  than  Spain,  and  no  country  on  earth 
combines  more  advantages  of  climate  ;  yet  the  nation 
seems  utterly  unable  to  avail  itself  of  its  privileges. 
T/ie  race  is  effete.  It  needs  the  infusion  of  a  more  vigor- 
ous blood ;  it  needs  re-creating  ;  the  current  has  flown 
along  the  veins  of  the  present  race  until  it  seems  almost 
stagnant.  The  Spaniard,  rich  or  poor,  is  the  very  person- 
ification of  indolence.  Filibusterism,  of  the  right  sort, 
could  do  much  for  the  Spanish  nation  ;  and  without  this, 
their  progress,  I  apprehend,  will  be  very  slow,  if  not  im- 
perceptible. 


LETTER   FROM    CADIZ,  395 

The  winter  climate  of  southern  Spain  is  dch"ghtful.  I 
spent  the  holiday  season  between  Cadiz  and  Seville,  and 
every  day  was  soft  and  balmy.  To  compare  it  with  a  sea- 
son at  home,  I  would  say  it  is  like  our  early  September 
weather.  It  is  a  much  finer  climate  than  Italy;  so  says 
every  American  I  have  seen  who  has  tested  both.  In- 
deed, I  saw  Italians  at  Seville  who  came  there  to  spend 
the  winter  for  the  sake  of  the  climate. 

The  women  of  Spain  are  said  to  be  beautiful.  They 
have  fine  figures,  dress  with  elegance,  and  have  the 
•'dark  eye"  of  the  South,  but  their  faces  rarely  indicate 
culture,  or  that  strength  and  force  of  character  which  are 
entirely  compatible  with  feminine  grace  and  beauty.  I 
know  Byron  sang  and  wrote  rapturously  of  the  women 
of  Spain  ;  but  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  he  had  just 
left  England  hating  everybody — the  sex  in  particular. 
He  met  admiration  and  kindness;  he  found  tempera- 
ments akin  to  his  own,  and  the  enthusiasm  of  his  genius 
wanting  some  vent,  found  it  in  his  poetic  gallantry  to 
the  fair  women  of  Cadiz.  An  old  Spanish  woman  of  the 
poorer  classes  is  a  frightful  creature.  Hundreds  of  them 
may  be  seen  any  day  sitting  at  the  church  doors  and  in 
the  streets,  begging.  Such  ugliness  in  old  age  is  a 
dreadful  curse. 

There  is  one  noticeable  and  really  graceful  feature  of 
the  dress  of  Spanish  ladies.  Bonnets  are  utterly  repudi- 
ated, both  the  huge  canopy  which  was  w^ont  with  us  to 
cover  the  whole  head,  projecting  far  forward,  defying 
your  scrutiny  of  the  fair  features  underneath,  and  the 
apology  for  a  bonnet  which  of  late  years  sits  perched  so 
jauntily  just  above  the  shoulders,  without  the  slightest 
pretension  to  be  more  than  a  graceful  (?)  appendage  of 
silk  and  satin.  The  head-dress  of  the  Spanish  lady  is  a 
black  silk   scarf  or   a   veil   adjusted    to   the   back   of  the 


39^  ADDRHSSKS   AND    M  ISCKl.I.ANIKS. 

hcatl,  then  brought  in  front,  and  falling  as  graceful 
drapery  over  the  shoulders.     The  st)le  is  universal. 

You  will  think  I  have  said  little  of  Cadiz.  For  the 
very  best  of  reasons,  there  is  but  little  to  say.  I  will 
mention  her  water  view  which  is  one  of  the  finest  in  the 
world.  Cadiz  is  on  an  island  and  the  sea  makes  up  into 
a  sort  of  bay,  forming  its  harbor  on  the  one  side,  and  on 
the  other  stretches  off  into  immensity.  For  days  in 
succession  I  saw'  the  sun  go  down  into  his  ocean-bed, 
amid  a  pomp  of  unsurpassed  glory  and  splendor.  But 
here  I  wish  to  say,  that  for  fine  sunsets  and  for  water- 
scenery,  combining  the  sublime  and  beautiful,  a  Buffalo- 
nian  need  never  leave  his  own  city.  We  have  neither  a 
sunrise  from  nor  a  sunset  in  the  ocean,  but  we  have 
everything  else.  I  have  seen  nothing  abroad  that  can 
be  compared  with  the  combination  view  of  sea  and  river 
which  is  commanded  from  Prospect  Hill.  I  believe  the 
earth  does  not  afford  a  view  surpassing  in  grandeur  and 
beauty,  that  which  a  summer-drive  down  to  the  Rock  on 
Sixth  and  Niagara  streets  will  command.  The  lake  is 
not  quite  so  extensive  as  some  sea  views,  but  to  atone 
for  this,  you  have  the  matchless  Niagara,  moving  with 
majesty, 

"  Strong  without  rage,  without  o'erflowing  full." 

The  combination  of  lake  and  river,  the  Canadian  shore, 
where 

"  Sweet  fields  beyond  the  swelling  flood 
Stand  dressed  in  living  green — " 

the  city  whose  towers  greet  you  from  the  distance,  the 
artificial  river  at  your  feet,  wdiich  floats  on  its  bosom 
the  commerce  of  a  dozen  States,  the  railroad,  a  type  of 
the  energy  of  your  nationality,  altogether,  I  believe  this 
view,  in  every  element  of  grandeur  and  beauty,  is  unsur- 
passed.    It  as  much  transcends  any  scenery  I   have  yet 


LETTER  FROM  SEVILLE.  397 

found  abroad,  as  the  Hudson  with  its  palace-crowned 
Highhmds  surpasses  the  boasted  Rhine  with  its  rat-trap 
castles  which  have  fooled  the  generations  before,  and 
very  likely  will  fool  generations  to  come.  But  I  don't 
mean  to  rail,  and  lest  I  may,  will  say  that  I  remain,  etc. 


Number  IV. 

Seville,  January  4,  i8^g. 

"  If  you  haven't  seen  Seville,  you  haven't  seen  Spain," 
is  here  a  proverb,  so  I  found  myself  on  the  little  steam- 
boat which  plies  on  the  Guadalquiver,  which  in  eight 
hours  landed  me  from  Cadiz,  in  this  famous  city.  Some 
romance  has  been  thrown  around  this  river  by  rhyme- 
makers,  but  it  is  all  in  their  jingle.  It  is  a  very  stupid 
stream,  serpentine  in  course,  through  a  country,  for  most 
part  of  the  way,  utterly  without  interest,  On  the  monot- 
onous banks,  herds  of  poor  cattle,  horses  and  sheep, 
are  to  be  seen  picking  up  an  indifferent  living,  but  the 
passage  is  unattractive.  As  you  near  Seville,  there  is 
some  improvement  ;  a  few  olive  and  orchard  groves. 
But  you  welcome  the  sight  of  the  town,  and  are  still 
happier  when  landed  at  the  London  Hotel.  If  I  were 
to  attempt  to  speak  of  Seville  in  detail,  I  should  be  at  a 
loss  to  know  where  to  begin.  To  see  it,  was  more  than  I 
could  do  in  a  week,  and  to  describe  what  I  saw,  in  its 
Moorish  architecture,  in  its  pictures,  in  its  historic  asso- 
ciations, transcends  my  powers.  I  shall  not  make  the 
attempt. 

Of  course,  there  is  little  that  is  modern  in  Seville  of 
any  interest.  It  is  the  Seville  of  Julius  Caesar,  who  made 
it  his  "  little  Rome;"  the  Seville  of  the  Moors,  witnessed 


398  ADDRHSSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

in  their  architecture  ;  the  Seville  of  Murillo,  the  founder 
of  a  school  of  art  which  is  one  of  the  glories  of  Spain  ; 
it  is  the  Seville  of  the  Inquisition  that  excites  our 
curiosity.  Go  where  we  will,  we  arc  among  the  monu- 
ments of  struggling  races  and  religions.  It  is  the 
sepulchral  voice  of  antic^uity  that  greets  our  ear,  and  we 
abandon  ourselves  to  its  guidance  and   teachings. 

The  Moors  made  Seville  one  of  the  grand  centers  of 
their  dominion  in  the  Peninsula,  until  wrested  from  them 
in  1248  by  Ferdinand  III.  The  Sevillians  remember 
affectionately  their  deliverer.  He  was  embalmed  at  his 
death,  and  he  lies  entombed  in  a  silver  coffin  in  the 
royal  chapel  of  the  cathedral.  His  body  is  exposed 
once  every  year  to  the  worshipful  gaze  of  the  people. 
Surmounting  an  arch  in  the  same  chapel,  is  a  full-size 
equestrian  statue  of  Ferdinand,  with  the  figure  of  a  Moor 
in  the  act  of  surrendering  the  keys  of  the  city  to  the 
conqueror.     Altogether,  it  is  quite  imposing. 

The  cathedral  is  of  course  the  central  attraction  of 
Seville,  being  by  far  the  largest  in  Spain,  and  one  of  the 
most  celebrated  in  the  world.  Its  site  has  been  dedicated 
to  the  national  worship  for  thousands  of  years.  Each 
successive  conqueror  seemed  to  find  a  delight  in  intensi- 
fying his  victory  by  inaugurating  the  rites  of  his  own 
religion  upon  the  conquered  altars  of  his  enemies.  On 
this  spot  was  the  temple  of  Isis,  also  of  Venus.  Here 
was  a  famous  mosque  of  the  Moors,  and  retaining  the 
magnificent  tower  erected  by  the  followers  of  the  prophet, 
the  Catholics  here  built  this  gigantic  cathedral.  It  is  431 
feet  in  length,  by  315  in  width.  It  has  seven  vast  aisles, 
separated  by  pillars,  sustaining  the  Gothic  arch,  which  in 
the  center  nave  attains  an  elevation  of  145  feet.  I  would 
as  soon  undertake  to  describe  the  milky  way,  as  its  multi- 
tude of  altars,  its  myriad  images  and    figures  in  bronze 


LETTER    FROM    SEVILLE.  399   • 

and  wood  and  marble,  its  pictures,  valuable  and  indif- 
ferent. The  view  itself  is  bewildering,  and  to  me  not  as 
pleasing  as  I  suppose  it  ought  to  have  been.  Here  are 
the  tombs  of  the  archbishops  of  Seville  for  four  centuries. 
Many  of  them  lie  in  marble  state,  the  "  counterfeit  pre- 
sentment "  of  the  once  living  spiritual  authority.  In  the 
center  is  the  tomb  of  a  son  of  Christopher  Columbus, 
inscribed  with  fit  emblems  of  discovery.  One  altar  to 
the  Virgin  attracts  attention  from  the  multitude  of 
offerings  it  has  accumulated.  They  are  made  to  the 
Virgin  for  her  deliverance  of  the  donors  from  diseases. 
Seville  has  always  been  distinguished  for  its  worship  of 
the  Mother  of  Christ.  It  has  for  centuries  maintained 
her  Immaculate  conception.  Their  sacred  salutations 
once  began  with  an  "Ave  Maria,"  and  this  is  still  a  part 
of  the  cry  of  the  watchman  in  his  nightly  patrols. 

There  are  a  half-dozen  Murillos  in  the  cathedral,  but 
with  this  exception  the  paintings  are  indifferent. 

The  Murillo  Gallery  in  the  museum  is  the  chief 
attraction  in  the  realm  of  art  in  Seville.  Here  are  twenty- 
two,  saved  from  the  hand  of  the  French  spoiler.  All  of 
them  are  religious  pictures,  mostly  representative  of  the 
Virgin  in  some  form.  They  all  evidence  the  artist's  faith 
in  the  sinless  character  of  Mary.  Nothing  can  exceed 
the  divine  purity,  the  absence  of  all  that  is  allied  to  the 
sensuous  or  earthly,  in  all  his  representations  of  her. 
Not  to  dwell  upon  them  in  detail,  I  will  remark  that  I 
was  particularly  interested  in  his  "  Annunciation,"  as 
it  is  the  original  of  a  beautiful  engraving  sometimes 
seen  with  us. 

One  of  the  chief  attractions  of  Seville  is  the  Alcazar. 
It  was  built  by  the  Moors,  seven  hundred  years  ago,  and 
although  it  has  in  its  day  been  put  to  many  vile  uses, 
has   recently   been    restored    to    its    original    glory.       Its 


400  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

walls  arc  of  variegated  tile,  of  most  highly  polished  and 
brilliant  surface,  and  its  ceilings  arc  of  most  elaborate 
finish,  the  whole  bedazzled  with  the  richest  ornamenting 
of  gold  and  silver.  Its  "  Court  of  the  Virgins,"  is  the 
square  where  the  king  of  the  Moors  was  accustomed  to 
receive  the  annual  gift  of  a  hundred  of  the  fair  beauties 
of  Seville.  Its  garden  was  laid  out  by  Charles  V.,  and 
consists  of  a  series  of  plateaus,  and  is  very  curious. 

The  "  House  of  Pilate,"  belonging  to  one  of  the 
Spanish  nobilit}',  is  another  curiosity.  It  is  said  to  be 
an  exact  imitation  of  the  house  bearing  that  title  in 
Jerusalem.  Its  court,  inclosed  by  marble  pillars,  its 
busts  of  the  Roman  emperors,  its  tessellated  pavements, 
its  thoroughly  Moorish  architecture,  give  it  a  very 
antique  appearance. 

Many  of  the  private  residences  in  Seville  appear  to  be 
abodes  of  great  luxury.  They  are  built  on  narrow,  and 
invariably  dirty  streets,  but  their  patios  or  courts,  with 
their  marble  pavements  and  pillars,  surrounded  by 
statuary,  and  the  classic  fountain  (for  they  are  frequently 
surrounded  by  groups  of  mythological  statuary),  and 
generally  plants  and  orange  trees,  impress  you  with  the 
conviction  that  there  are  both  taste  and  luxury. 

This  is  the  residence  of  the  Duke  de  Montpensier,  the 
eldest  son  of  Louis  Phillippe,  and  son-in-law  of  the  late 
King  of  Spain.  His  palace  is  built  near  the  banks  of  the 
Guadalquiver,  the  public  gardens  alone  intervening. 
Here  is  to  be  found  another  of  the  out-door  luxuries  of 
Spain,  the  Alameda,  or  public  promenade.  Here  it  is  on 
the  bank  of  the  river,  at  least  two  miles  in  length  from 
which  several  paths  diverge  into  the  municipal  forests 
and  orange  groves.  On  Sunday  all  Seville  is  here.  I 
saw  the  Duke,  the  Infanta,  and  the  Count  de  Paris, 
frequently    on    this    walk.       The    Count,    but    for    Louis 


LETTER   FROM    SEVILLE.  40I 

Napoleon,  the  lieir  to  the  thrf)ne  of  France,  is  quite  a 
beardless  youth,  of  very  modest  mien,  and  indicating  in 
his  countenance  some  of  the  qualities  of  a  ruler.  Prob- 
ably he  will  never  be  put  to  the  test. 

One  is  often  reminded  in  Seville  of  the  bloody  reign 
of  Philip  II.  It  was  often  illuminated  by  the  fires  of 
the  inquisition.  Among  the  relics  belonging  to  the 
cathedral  is  a  cross  which  used  to  stand  in  the  streets 
in  those  days  of  terror.  In  \-our  way  to  the  gypsy 
neighborhood  you  will  pass  through  a  gate  surmounted 
by  an  arch,  sustaining  a  monumental  pile  erected  in 
honor  of  that  meanest  and  most  bigoted  of  all  the 
tyrants  that  ever  wore  a  crown,  Philip  II.  As  I  passed 
under  it,  and  read  the  Latin  inscription  to  the  potc7itis- 
sinio  ct  cxcellcncissiino  rege,  I  felt  grateful  that  I  lived  in 
a  country  where  it  was  both  a  privilege  and  an  instinct 
to  execrate  a  name  which  Spaniards  are  taught  to  honor. 

On  the  opposite  side  of  the  river  is  the  town  of  the 
gypsies.  It  is  a  filthy  place,  and  your  compensation  for 
wading  through  it  must  be  in  }-our  view  of  the  dark- 
eyed,  black-haired,  and  bronzed-featured  descendants  of 
the  old  gypsies  of  Spain. 

Seville  has  but  one  modern  feature,  a  square,  and  the 
buildings  erected  on  either  side  of  it,  being  the  ground 
once  occupied  by  a  convent,  confiscated  by  the  revolu- 
tion in  1837.  Their  old  convents  are  now  all  put  to 
some  public  use.  The  winter  climate  of  Seville  is 
delightful,  the  roads  from  it  execrable,  and  after  having 
spent  a  week  in  it,  it  is  one  of  the  best  towns  to  go  from 
I  know.     So  we  will  take  up  our  line  of  march. 

Here  at  Seville,  I  met  President  Buchanan's  letter  to 
the  Fort  Duquesne  celebration.  No  State  paper  from 
our  ministers  has  for  years  attracted  so  much  attention 
abroad.     It  is  the   Hercules  club  with  which  the  London 


402  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

Times  daily  annihilates  John  l^ri^hl  and  reform.  It  is 
ridiculously  amusing  to  hear  the  comments,  even  of 
intelligent  Europeans,  upon  the  letter.  They  profess  to 
regard  it  as  a  sort  of  official  giving  up  the  republican 
ship.  I  have  ventured  to  suggest,  that  had  the  recent 
elections  sustained  the  administration,  and  had  Senator 
Douglas  been  defeated  in  Illinois,  that  letter  would  have 
been  as  hopeful  and  buoyant  as  it  was  cheerless  and 
despondent.  The  impression  among  all  Americans  I 
have  met  is,  that  however  pertinent  might  have  been 
the  inquiry  of  Mr.  Buchanan,  and  however  true  his 
declaration  as  to  venal  legislatures,  it  ought  not  to  have 
been  uttered  by  the  executive.  Made  by  a  private 
citizen,  it  would  have  attracted  no  attention,  but  coming 
from  the  head  of  the  government,  it  is  supposed  to  be 
very  significant. 

Any  American,  of  any  party,  who  will  travel  a  few 
weeks  in  Europe,  however  much  of  a  grumbler  at  bad 
government  he  may  be  at  home,  I  fancy  will  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  there  is  more  of  afifirmative  good  and 
less  of  positive  evil  under  his  own  government  than 
exist  under  any  other  upon  the  footstool.  The  evils 
which  now  press  upon  us  contrasted  with  those  which 
afflict  other  peoples,  especially  the  great  interests  of 
labor,  are  as  dust  in  the  balance.  I  confess  to  have 
grown  hopeful  of  the  future.  We  shall  have  some  bad 
government,  some  venal  legislators,  some  oppressive 
taxation,  but  for  generations  to  come,  we  shall  have  the 
highest  intelligence,  the  best  rewarded  labor,  the  most 
diffused  property,  of  any  nation  upon  the  face  of  the 
earth. 


LETTER  FROM  MALAGA.  403 


N  U  M  P.  E  R  V. 


Malaga,  January  //,  iS^g. 

Malaga  is  another  old  Spanish  city,  whose  interest  is 
mostly  connected  with  the  past.  It  lies  beautifully  on 
the  Mediterranean,  is  hemmed  in  by  a  range  of  high 
hills,  except  on  the  sea-side,  and  has  a  most  delicious 
winter  climate.  There  is  something  in  the  commingling 
of  the  air  of  the  sea  with  that  which  comes  down  from 
the  mountains  of  Granada,  that  forms  one  of  the  most 
buoyant  and  exhilarating  atmospheres  I  ever  breathed. 
For  hours  I  can  stroll  over  these  hills,  and  wander  on 
the  shore  of  the  sea,  with  scarce  any  feeling  of  fatigue. 
It  is  a  favorite  resort  of  English  invalids,  and  is  fully 
entitled  to  all  its  reputation  as  a  winter  residence.  Its 
Alameda  is  in  the  center  of  the  city,  the  promenade 
being  about  seventy-five  feet  in  width  by  twelve  hundred 
in  length,  adorned  with  shade  trees  and  marble  statues. 
A  fine  fountain  plays  at  one  end  of  it.  Additional  to 
this  is  a  fine  drive  on  the  beach  of  about  three  miles. 
These  constitute  the  public  attractions. 

It  has  a  large  commerce  in  fruits  and  wines.  The 
Malaga  raisins  go  to  all  portions  of  the  commercial 
world.  They  are  manufactured  from  the  grape  which 
grows  upon  the  hills — the  vine  district  extending  from 
the  sea  about  twenty  miles  into  the  interior.  The  city 
swarms  with  beggars,  and  is  generally  filthy  in  its  streets, 
while  its  public  buildings  are  unattractive. 

THE    PROTESTANT    CEMETERY. 

There  is  a  feature  in  Malaga  to  which  I  would  call 
attention,  not  only  because  in  itself  pleasing,  but  as 
introductor}-  to  a  word  of  comment   upon  the  neglect  of 


404  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

our  government  to  provide  the  means  of  decent  sepulture 
for  its  citizens  dying  in  Catholic  countries.  The  feature 
to  which  I  allude  is  the  English  Protestant  Cemetery. 
With  the  exception  of  one  at  Cadiz,  and  one  just  obtained 
from  the  reluctant  authorities  at  Madrid,  it  is  the  only 
place  where  a  ^'heretic''  can  receive  decent  burial  in 
Spain.  It  was  founded  by  the  persevering  exertions  of 
the  late  Mr.  Mark,  long  the  English  consul  at  Malaga, 
who  never  gave  over  his  importunities  until  "  his  Catholic 
Majesty,"  the  King  of  Spain,  in  1830,  gave  his  assent  to 
the  grant  of  land  for  this  object.  Prior  to  that  time, 
Protestants  dying  at  Malaga,  English  or  American,  sailors 
or  men  of  the  highest  social  consideration,  were  buried 
by  night,  between  high  and  low-water  tide,  on  the  sea 
beach.  They  had  about  the  same  rites  and  offices  as  are 
given  to  dogs  and  beasts  of  prey.  Nothing  more  was 
permitted  by  the  bigoted  intolerance  of  the  Spanish 
government.  The  English  government  aided  the  liber- 
ality of  its  own  citizens  resident  in  Malaga,  to  purchase 
the  plot  of  ground  constituting  the  cemetery,  and,  not 
to  speak  derogatively  of  the  religion  of  this  country,  for 
such  is  not  my  purpose,  I  will  say,  that  this  consecrated 
spot  is,  to  one  of  our  faith,  the  fairest  oasis  upon  which 
the  eye  can  rest  on  the  whole  Peninsula.  It  touches 
chords  in  the  Protestant  heart,  which  all  the  other 
creations  of  Art  or  Nature  fail  to  reach.  Here,  in  this 
land  of  intolerance,  where  your  worship  is  denied  you, 
except  in  a  covert  way  and  under  the  roof  and  flag  of 
the  English  consulate,  where  until  recently  the  deceased 
of  your  faith  was  given  to  the  sea,  without  any  of  the 
ceremonials  of  religion,  or  the  delicate  offices  of  love,  is 
an  honored  place  of  sepulture  for  the  English  Protestant ; 
surpassingly  beautiful  in  its  position  and  decorations. 


LETTER    FROM    MALACiA.  405 

Its  location  is  bc}'ond  a  bluff  which  rises  a  few  }'ards 
from  the  shore  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  having  a  <^entle 
acclivity,  from  every  point  overlooks  the  sea,  which, 
when  I  visited  it,  seemed  to  whisper  its  dirge  of  gentle 
sympathy.  Its  walks  are  kept  scrupulously  neat,  bordered 
with  the  evergreen  cypress,  while  the  cemetery  seems  at 
this  season  embosomed  in  a  sea  of  flowering  geraniums. 
It  is  such  a  spot  as  one  would  select  for  the  last  repose  of 
his  loved  dead.  Here  the  sea  ever  sings  its  requiem,  and 
a  perpetual  spring  weaves  its  garland  of  never-failing 
flowers. 

This  is  the  place  where  the  last  offices  of  the  living  are 
paid  to  the  English  Protestant  dying  in  Malaga.  And 
this,  not  alone  for  the  rich  and  the  noble,  but  the  English 
sailor  has  allotted  to  him  a  portion  of  the  grounds. 

I  felt  grateful  that  English  enterprise  had  afforded  to 
my  countr)'men  so  hallowed  and  sweet  a  repose,  rescuing 
them,  as  it  had  done,  from  the  fate  of  beasts,  that 
dreadful  burial  on  the  sands  of  the  sea  by  the  darkness 
of  midnight.  I  could  not  repress  a  stronger  feeling  than 
of  mere  regret,  that  the  American  government  has 
steadily  refused  all  appropriations  and  all  aid  towards 
securing  plots  of  ground  in  any  of  these  Catholic  ports 
where  is  a  large  American  trade,  for  the  burial  of  its 
deceased  citizens.  During  the  vintage  season,  there  are 
often  thirty  of  our  vessels  and  three  hundred  of  our 
seamen  in  this  port  alone,  at  the  same  time,  and  never  a 
season  passing  without  more  or  less  mortality.  I  learned 
through  our  consul  at  Cadiz  that  during  the  three  years 
of  his  official  service  there,  he  had  buried  on  the  sea 
beach  no  less  than  thirteen  American  citizens,  whom 
disease  or  shipwreck  had  thrown  dead  upon  his  hands  at 
that  port.  The  proprietors  of  the  English  cemetery  here 
at  Malaga  have  proposed,  in   response  to  the  overture  of 


4o6  ADDRESSES   AND    MTSCEI. THAMES. 

our  excellent  consul,  Air.  Smith,  that  for  one  thousand 
dollars  the  perpetual  riy;ht  of  burial  of  American  citizens 
dying  at  Malaga,  should  be  granted,  while  at  Cadiz,  for 
three  hundred  dollars,  a  plot  of  ground,  ample  for  all 
our  burial  purposes  for  all  time,  could  be  secured.  The 
government  has  been  advised  of  all  these  facts,  and  yet 
refuses  to  entertain  any  proposition  on  tlie  subject. 

Look  at  the  inconsistency.  An  American  seaman 
disabled  by  any  providence  is  found  in  one  of  these 
ports,  indeed,  in  any  port  of  the  world,  and  the  home 
government  through  its  commercial  agent  feeds  and 
clothes  him,  supplies  all  his  living  necessities,  and  sends 
him  by  the  first  opportunity  to  his  home.  So  much  the 
humanity  of  the  government  does  for  the  living  sailor. 
But  if  he  chance  to  die  in  any  of  these  Catholic  ports, 
that  humanity  forgets  the  sailor  is  not  a  dog,  and  throws 
him  to  the  jaws  of  the  sea  ! 

If  an  American  traveler  lands  at  one  of  these  ports, 
and  his  rights  as  a  man  are  outraged  by  the  Spanish 
authorities,  the  whole  navy  of  the  United  States,  if  neces- 
sary, would  be  found  thundering  at  its  gates,  demanding 
apology  and  restoration.  No  expense  would  be  deemed 
too  great  to  protect  the  rights  which  pertain  to  the 
sacred  character  of  American  citizenship.  But  when  he 
dies,  that  government  forgets  its  paternal  relations  to  the 
citizen,  and  allows  him  to  be  buried  like  a  beast  of  prey 
to  be  "by  clogs  and  hungry  vultures  torn."  A  hundredth 
part  of  the  sum  which  is  every  year  wasted  in  manifold 
ways  would  secure  an  American  cemetery  of  ample 
accommodation  in  every  port  in  the  world  where  we 
have  a  considerable  commerce,  and  where  humanity 
demands  it. 

Let  it  be  understood  that  now,  since  Spain  has  so 
far   relaxed   her   intolerance   as   to   permit   of   Protestant 


LETTER  FROM  GRANADA.  407 

sepulture  in  her  Mediterranean  ports,  while  the  English 
government  have  justified  their  relations  to  the  better 
sentiments  of  our  nature,  by  securing  to  her  citizens 
these  hallowed  resting-places  for  their  dead,  the  American 
citizen,  dying  in  Spain,  has,  except  in  Malaga,  no  burial- 
place  save  in  the  sands  of  the  sea,  and  here,  has  no  place 
where  surviving  love  may  attest  its  affections,  except  as 
it  is  afforded  by  English  courtesy !  Can  any  moderate 
language  characterize  this  national  policy? 

I  learn  that  this  apology  has  been  made  by  our  author- 
ities :  That  if  appropriations  are  made  for  cemeteries  at 
Malaga  and  Cadiz,  it  will  be  established  as  a  precedent, 
and  we  should  have  to  do  the  same  in  other  Catholic 
ports,  where  the  same  necessity  exists.  Most  paltry!  Of 
course  it  would,  and  of  course  it  ought  to  be  a  precedent. 
Wherever  w^e  have  a  large  commerce,  and  deaths  of 
American  citizens  are  of  annual  occurrence,  the  govern- 
ment should  secure,  at  a  moderate  cost,  a  decent  place  of 
burial.  And  wherever  the  bigotry  of  a  foreign  government 
now  refuses  Christian  rites  of  sepulture  to  our  dead,  the 
government  should  make  it  a  leading  object  of  diplomatic 
negotiation,  until  the  right  is  yielded.  Indifference  on 
this  subject,  which  lies  so  closely  to  our  humanities,  is 
unworthy  a  Christian  nation.  I  trust  my  country  will  by 
timely  action  erase  this  blot  from  her  escutcheon. 


Number  VI. 


Granada,  The  Alhambra,  February  2g,  iSjg. 
K  visit  to  Granada  and  the  Alhambra  I  postponed  to 
the  close  of  the  winter,  that  I   might  be  assured  of  soft 
weather  at  the  base  of  the  snow-capped  Sierra  Nevada. 


408  ADDKKSSES   AND    MISCKM.ANIES. 

As  the  tn'i)  from  MalaL;;i  (about  seventy  miles  distant)  is 
made  by  dilii^ciicc,  and  that  mostly  by  night  and  over  the 
mountains,  I  had  anticipated  anything  but  pleasure  in  the 
journey  itself.  In  this  I  was  most  happily  disappointed. 
Leaving  Malaga  at  seven  o'clock  on  the  evening  of  the 
iSth  instant,  with  two  American  fellow-travelers,  the  ride 
was  one  of  entire  comfort  and  great  pleasure.  The  full 
moon  rising  in  a  cloudless  sky  about  the  time  of  our 
starting  out,  the  ascent  of  the  mountains  was  perfectly 
magnificent.  The  road  is  a  good  MacAdam,  and  the  most 
serpentine  in  its  windings  up  the  ascent  of  three  thousand 
feet  that  can  be  imagined.  For  the  first  fifteen  miles  not 
much  more  than  half  that  distance  is  actually  gained,  so 
much  of  the  track  is  doubled  by  its  circuit  around  the 
mountains.  Until  nearly  midnight  we  had  repeated  views 
of  the  city  of  Malaga  and  of  the  Mediterranean,  while  the 
wild  and  deep  ravines  and  Alpine  heights,  near  and  remote, 
and  the  Sierra  Nevada  glistening  like  a  mirror,  added  to 
a  scene  as  wild  and  diversified  as  to  me  it  was  novel.  At 
length,  the  table-land  attained,  I  resigned  myself  to  an 
old-fashioned  post-coach  sleep,  until  the  broad  daylight, 
which  found  us  entering  the  Vega,  or  the  valley  of  the 
Xenil. 

This  former  paradise  of  the  Moor  from  which  he  was 
driven  by  the  ruthless  hand  of  Ferdinand,  although  in  the 
possession  of  the  indolent  Spaniard,  retains  much  of  its 
former  glory.  Its  cultivation  for  at  least  two  thousand 
years,  with  a  soil  and  climate  where  production  most 
delicious  and  luxuriant  is  the  law,  has  neither  exhausted 
its  fertility,  nor  detracted  from  its  original  beauty.  As 
when  the  home  of  the  Roman,  and  afterward  of  the 
Moor,  so  it  still  is  the  land  of  the  vine  and  the  olive. 
Our  road  for  miles  was  through  vineyards  from  which  are 
made    the    most    delicate    wines   of   Spain,  and  through 


LETTER    FROM    (GRANADA.  409 

groves  which  yield  abundantly  some  of  the  choicest  fruits 
of  the  tropics. 

The  climate  of  Granada  is  an  element  not  to  be  lost  sight 
of  in  considering  its  natural  beauty.  We  are  to  remem- 
ber that  all  of  its  spring  and  some  of  its  winter  is  as  genial 
as  the  June  of  our  North.  My  visit  to  this  once-favorite 
home  of  the  Moor  has  been  during  the  last  two  weeks  of 
February,  and  each  day  has  been  as  delightful  as  ever 
issued  from  the  gates  of  the  morning.  The  early  part 
and  the  evening  have  sometimes  had  a  little  of  our 
autumnal  coolness,  but  all  the  midday  has  been  of  sum- 
mer warmth,  without  the  least  oppressiveness  of  heat. 
This  is  the  season  of  the  ripe  pomegranate  and  melon, 
and  of  the  orange  never  out  of  season,  while  the  almond- 
trees,  scattered  all  over  the  hill-sides,  are  now  in  full 
blossom.  The  atmosphere,  less  exciting  than  that  on  the 
coast  of  the  Mediterranean,  is  a  constantly  felt  delight. 
The  pleasure  of  simple  existence  can  nowhere  be  more 
exquisite.  The  early  months  of  the  winter  have  some 
cold  rains  and  a  little  snow,  but  by  the  first  of  March  the 
wet  season  is  usually  over.  Winter  never  here  bears  a 
leafless  sceptre,  for  there  are  no  forests,  and  the  olive 
groves  which  are  scattered  with  prodigal  hand  all  over 
the  Vega  are  evergreens  ;  so  that,  with  the  exception  of 
the  poplar  and  elm  planted  in  the  public  grounds  for 
shade  and  ornament,  there  are  few  trees  that  exhibit  the 
ordinary  symbols  of  winter.  The  Sierra  Nevada  crowned 
with  perpetual  snows  is  almost  the  sole  representative  of 
the  severer  aspects  of  the  season.  The  clearness  of  the 
sky  in  Southern  Spain  is  another  element  to  be  noted. 
In  the  three  months  I  have  spent  in  the  southern  portions 
of  the  peninsula,  I  have  not  seen  more  than  a  half-dozen 
cloudy  days,  while  the  moon  and  starlight  have  been  ever 
clear  and  brilliant. 


4IO  ADDRESSES    AND    MISCELLANIES. 

When  \vc  consider  the  affluence  of  Nature  in  this  favored 
Province  of  Granada,  and  remember  that  the  followers  of 
the  Prophet  had  surrounded  themselves  with  every  luxury 
which  the  art  and  genius  of  their  age  could  supply,  we 
shall  not  wonder  at  their  bitter  wailing  over  their  expul- 
sion from  this  their  earthly  paradise,  and  do  we  not  almost 
forgive  that  terrible  curse  upon  their  invaders,  a  curse 
which  has  come  down  to  us  in  legend  and  in  song,  with 
"  The  last  sigh  of  the  Moor  ?  " 

As  I  stood  upon  that  elevation  of  ground  about  five 
miles  from  the  city,  where  the  heart-broken  leader  of  the 
fugitives  took  his  last  view  of  the  Alhambra,  and  of  that 
beautiful  valley  and  those  luxurious  homes  where  for 
seven  hundred  years  his  people  had  dwelt  in  security  and 
happiness,  I  confess,  if  I  did  not  echo  in  my  heart  his 
malediction,  my  sentiment  was  entirely  one  of  sympathy 
for  the  vanquished.  It  is  certain  humanity  gained  noth- 
ing by  the  conquest  and  expulsion,  and  it  would  tax  the 
ingenuity  of  a  wise  man  to  demonstrate  that  civilization 
has  not  been  the  loser.  Most  bloody  instructions  has  the 
Spaniard  taught  the  world,  and  if  he  had  a  thousand 
Cubas,  and  all  were  to  be  wrenched  away  by  Saracen 
or  Christian  hand,  he  should  recognize  the  ever-pursuing 
Nemesis  avenging  the  wrongs  of  the  Moor. 

Few  cities  combine  more  of  the  romantic  charm  and 
the  tragic  interest  of  history  than  Granada.  Conquered 
from  the  Visigoths  by  the  Moors  in  about  the  eighth  cen- 
tury, it  was  retained  by  them  until  the  reign  of  Ferdinand 
and  Isabella,  when  domestic  and  civil  feuds  in  the  Alham- 
bra so  weakened  the  Moorish  power  that  Ferdinand  was 
able,  after  ten  years  of  strategy  and  siege  and  battle,  to 
effect  the  final  conquest  of  the  province.  This  city  was 
the  last  to  surrender  to  the  inexorable  invader.  All  the 
other  strongholds  had  been  subdued,  and  their  wretched 


LETTER  FROM  GRANADA.  4II 

inhabitants  driven  into  exile  or  sold  into  slavery.  Granada, 
after  a  hopeless  resistance,  was,  on  the  fifth  of  January, 
1492,  surrendered  by  Boabdil  ''the  Unfortunate"  to  the 
Spanish  conqueror. 

On  that  day  was  made  the  royal  entrance  into  the  palace 
of  the  Moorish  kings,  an  event  which  is  represented  in 
almost  every  public  work  of  art,  sacred  or  secular,  which 
the  Spaniard  has  created  in  Granada. 

But  the  sad  tale  of  that  conquest,  is  it  not  told  by  our 
own  Irving  in  a  style  that  combines  the  charm  of  fiction 
with  the  fidelity  of  history? 

I  have  spoken  generally  of  the  valley  in  which  this  city 
is  situated,  but  of  the  city  itself — the  Moorish-Spanish 
Granada — it  remains  to  speak.  It  was  doubtless  in  the 
time  of  the  Moors  a  beautiful  city.  They  had  the  taste 
to  adorn  it,  and  the  enterprise  to  preserve  its  decorations. 
On  every  side  the  evidence  of  this  meets  your  eye.  But 
the  Spaniard,  possessing  himself  of  the  comfortable  seats 
he  found  made  to  his  hands,  with  the  exception  of  a  very 
few  religious  edifices,  and  those  erected  two  and  three 
centuries  ago  when  Spain  was  in  her  palmy  state,  has 
added  nothing  new  to  Granada,  and  has  permitted  a 
shameful  decadence  in  all  its  artistic  beauty.  Viewed 
from  any  of  the  eminences  in  and  about  the  city,  it  looks 
as  if  at  the  touch  of  a  finger  it  would  topple  into  ruin. 
Its  edifices  for  the  most  part  have  a  time-bronzed  and 
"rookery"  look,  which  is  really  repulsive.  Then  it  is  a 
very  dirty  city,  and  in  this  all  the  cities  of  Spain  I  have 
seen,  Cadiz  alone  excepted,  are  their  own  sole  parallels. 
But  this  is  chargeable  to  the  modern  Spaniard,  not  to  the 
cavalier  of  the  time  of  Ferdinand  or  Charles.  That  is  of 
Spanish  creation,  Granada  has  but  little  of  architectural 
interest,  but  that  little  reveals  what  Spain  has  been. 
When    she    was    a    power    on    the    earth,  when    she  was 


412  ADDUKSSKS    AND    M  ISCKM.ANIES. 

ciirichctl  to  ovcrflowiny;  by  her  discoveries  and  conquests 
in  the  New  World,  the  Church  was  the  great  receptacle 
and  exponent  of  her  taste  and  her  wealth,  and  she  made 
enormous  contributions  of  her  newly-acquired  treasures 
to  her  religious  architecture.  That,  too,  was  the  palmy 
period  of  her  literature  and  her  art,  as  well  as  of  her  mate- 
rial strength.  When  Spain  had  unbounded  wealth  to 
lavish  upon  her  churches  and  convents,  she  had  a  Murillo 
to  adorn  them. 

The  cathedral  of  Granada  is  one  of  the  monuments  of 
that  past.  Not  strictly  scientific  in  its  style,  its  grand  old 
arches,  clustered  pillars  and  splendid  adornings,  all  in 
severe  taste,  and  upon  a  scale  colossal,  produce  an  effect 
which  belongs  only  to  the  sublime  in  architecture.  At 
the  period  in  the  history  of  Spain  of  which  I  have  been 
speaking,  her  art,  like  that  of  Athens  at  the  time  of  Paul's 
memorable  visit,  was  intensely  religious.  Scarce  a  picture 
or  a  work  in  marble  is  to  be  seen  in  any  of  her  galleries, 
which  are  not  in  their  actual  or  ideal  of  a  scriptural  char- 
acter according  to  Catholic  interpretation.  Therefore  it 
is  that  the  Spanish  churches  are  galleries  of  pictures 
of  more  or  less  merit,  generally  the  latter,  her  better  pic- 
tures being  for  the  most  part  in  the  public  and  private 
collections. 

The  most  attractive  historic  feature  in  the  cathedral  is  a 
colossal  equestrian  statue  of  Ferdinand,  surmounting  a  lofty 
arch  adjoining  the  entrance  into  his  chapel.  Of  course  a 
vanquished  Moor  is  represented  under  the  horse's  heels, 
illustrating  the  conquest.  But  pass  we  on  to  the  chapel  of 
Ferdinand,  a  good-sized  church  of  itself,  with  all  the  appur- 
tenances, and  connected  with  the  cathedral.  Here  is  the 
celebrated  and  certainly  magnificent  marble  monumental 
tomb  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella.  First  notice  the  open 
work  in  iron  extending  from   floor  to  ceiling,  which  shuts 


LETTER   FROM    GRANADA.  413 

off  the  tomb  from  the  main  part  of  the  chapel,  with  its 
elaborate  figures.  Here  sectarian  pride  has  not  forgotten 
to  symboHze  an  incident  of  the  conquest — the  conversion 
of  certain  leading  Moors  from  the  Moslem  faith  to  that 
of  the  conqueror,  by  a  representation  of  the  act  of  their 
baptism.  The  arguments  were  unanswerable.  Their 
nation  was  crushed  out.  Exile  or  slavery  to  persons,  and 
confiscation  to  property  were  presented  on  the  one  hand 
to  all  persistent  heretics,  and  on  the  other,  to  those  Moor- 
ish princes  who  could  see  the  beauty  of  the  Catholic  faith 
and  embrace  it,  continued  power  under  a  splendid  vassal- 
age to  Ferdinand,  with  at  least  some  symbols  of  royalty 
to  impart  a  grace  to  their  downfall.  There  were  some, 
however,  who  had  nobility  of  nature  enough  not  to  com- 
prehend the  argument,  preferring  exile  in  Africa  with 
freedom,  to  the  pomp  of  a  debasing  servility. 

The  royal  tomb  is  a  large  and  elaborate  work  in  alabas- 
ter, covered  with  figures,  among  which  are  the  Apostles 
and  certain  ecclesiastical  dignities. 

But,  stately  and  imposing  as  is  this  pile  of  marble,  its 
interest  fades  into  insignificance  when  contrasted  with  that 
which  is  associated  with  the  homely,  iron-bound  coffins, 
which,  in  the  vault  beneath,  contain  the  mortal  remains 
of  Ferdinand  and  the  hardly  less  illustrious  Isabella. 
Here  you  are  exhibited  the  sword  borne  by  Ferdinand 
through  the  wars  of  the  conquest,  and  the  crown  of  his 
queen  which  she  wore  on  the  day  of  her  entrance  into 
Alhambra.  You  are  none  the  wiser  for  wielding  the  one 
and  crowning  yourself  with  the  other. 

They  who  live  in  European  countries,  and  are  always 
amid  the  monuments  of  the  olden  time,  probably  find  less 
of  interest  in  such  relics  of  the  power  and  grandeur  of  the 
past.  But  an  American,  who  stands  by  the  ashes  of  the 
piatrons  of  Columbus  who  discovered  his  country  in  the 


414  ADDkESSKS   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

very  year  of  tlic  C()iu[uest,  will  contrast  the  almost  fabu- 
lous ach'auce  in  j)opulation  antl  achiexcnicnt  of  a  land 
which  that  Spanish  reign  saw  for  the  first  time  opened  to 
the  world,  with  the  decline  of  a  country,  the  first  seeds  of 
w  liicli  were  sown  in  the  very  hour  of  that  discovery,  and 
in  the  \er)'  act  which  all  this  magnificence  is  intended  to 
honor.     I  know  no  spot  more  suggestive. 

This  cathedral,  of  more  than  two  centuries  standing, 
place  to  the  credit  sitlc  of  the  art  account  of  Spain. 

There  is  a  church  about  three  centuries  old,  finished  in 
fresco  from  floor  to  dome.  It  is  exceedingly  brilliant,  and 
by  far  the  finest  in  that  style  of  art  I  have  seen.  There, 
too,  is  a  tribute  to  Ferdinand.  A  large  alcove  is  occupied 
with  representations  of  his  triumphal  entrance  into  the 
Alhambra,  while  the  discomfited  Moors  are  in  the  act  of 
departure.  Decay  has  laid  its  hands  on  many  of  the  deco- 
rations of  this  church,  but  that  is  a  sacred  minister  in 
Granada — no  effort  is  made  to  stay  its  advances. 

The  Cartujah  Convent,  formerly  occupied  by  an  order 
of  monks,  but  now  no  more  than  a  rich  cabinet,  is  by  far 
the  most  elegant  of  all  the  old  Spanish  edifices  in  Gran- 
ada. Its  construction  is  after  no  particular  order,  and 
would  fail  to  please  the  purely  scientific  architect,  but  it 
is  a  most  elaborate  work  of  taste  and  beauty.  Its  exte- 
rior is  unattractive,  its  grounds  a  heap  of  rubbish.  The 
entrance  is  into  a  gallery  of  pictures  by  one  of  the  monks 
of  the  convent,  wdio  combined  a  love  of  art  with  his 
asceticism.  He  was  quite  original  in  his  choice  of  sub- 
jects, for  out  of  a  score  or  two  of  large  pictures,  with  one 
or  two  exceptions,  all  represent  poor  monks,  hanging, 
or  boiling  or  roasting,  or  in  some  kindred  predicament 
equally  disagreeable.  The  very  courteous  priest  who 
showed  me  the  convent,  said  they  were  Cartusian  monks 
who  suffered  martyrdom   under  Henry  VIII.  in  England. 


LETTER  FROM  GRANADA.  415 

As  of  that  royal  Bluebeard  it  is  said  that  "  those  who 
were  Protestants  he  burned  and  those  who  were  Papists 
he  hanged,"  very  likely  these  pictures  represent  the  truth 
of  history.  One  of  the  noted  exceptions  to  this  class  of 
subjects  represents  an  interesting  fact,  for  so  the  story 
goes,  connected  with  St.  Bruno,  the  patron  saint  of  this 
convent.  The  pictures  represent  his  brother  monks  bear- 
ing him  to  his  tomb,  while  Bruno  sits  upright  in  his  coffin, 
pallid  as  death,  and  with  most  frightened  aspect.  Great 
is  the  consternation  depicted  on  the  countenances  of  his 
brother  monks,  that  he  should  thus  revisit  the  glimpses 
of  the  day  whom  they  hoped  quietly  to  inurn.  The 
legend  is  that,  after  thus  thrice  appearing  to  their  "  fear- 
entrenched  eyes,"  he  laid  him  down  as  became  a  saint, 
and  has  slept  quietly  ever  since. 

I  looked  to  see  if  there  were  any  pictures  of  the  auto  da 
fcs  of  the  Inquisition,  at  which  eighteen  thousand  Prot- 
estants went  in  chariots  of  fire  to  heaven,  or  of  the  infernal 
enginery  of  that  tribunal,  but  saw  none  !  Probably  the 
good  monk  found  in  the  Cartusian  martyrs  as  many  sub- 
jects as  he  had  time  to  illustrate. 

The  three  rooms  of  the  convent  devoted  to  public 
worship  were  beautiful  as  marble  and  art  can  make  them. 
The  "  Sacrista  "  surpasses  anything  I  ever  saw  in  artistic 
grace.  The  very  entrance  doors,  and  the  immense  old 
wardrobes  which  were  to  contain  the  vestment  of  the 
monks,  are  all  inlaid  with  tortoise  shell,  pearl,  ivory  and 
silver.  Every  separate  work  is  a  gem.  The  whole  is  a 
thing  of  wondrous  beauty.  In  this  room  is  the  finest 
marble  for  architectural  effect,  I  have  ever  seen.  Its 
variegation  gives  it  the  appearance  of  a  winter  landscape. 
All  the  marble  in  the  convent,  and  there  are  many 
varieties,  is  from  the  Sierra  Nevada.  If  that  mine  of 
beauty  were  anywhere  but  in  Spain  !     Granada  ought  to 


4l6  ADDRKSSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

be  ii  very  Athens  in  its  architecture  and  sculpture.  Yet 
for  two  centuries  she  has  created  hardly  a  single  work  of 
art,  good,  bad,  or  indifferent. 

Granada  was  made  by  the  Moors  a  city  of  shaded 
public  grounds,  of  fountains  and  gardens.  You  can 
hardh'  go  amiss  for  some  of  their  places  of  recreation, 
co.sy  nook.s,  by-paths  by  the  mountain-side,  "  lovers' 
lanes"  and  rural  shades.  To  instance  but  one:  The 
main  Alameda  is  nearly  a  half  mile  in  length,  a  portion 
of  it  with  triple  broad  avenues,  shaded  with  trees 
resembling  the  finest  elms  of  the  New  England  villages, 
and  these  connected  by  lateral  walks  with  the  river  Xenil, 
both  of  whose  banks  have  broad  and  shaded  paths. 
Gardens  intervene  between  these  avenues  and  the  river. 
Numerous  Moorish  fountains  are  in  different  parts  of  this 
Alameda  and  its  appurtenant  grounds.  Like  everything 
else,  these  plazas  have  been  left  to  take  care  of  them- 
selves, but  they  are  beautiful  even  in  their  neglect. 

THE     ALHAMBRA. 

The  Alhambra  is  of  course  the  central  attraction  at 
Granada.  The  witchery  of  Irving's  pen  has  invested  it 
with  that  sort  of  charm  which  belongs  to  the  ideal.  The 
''Tales  of  the  Alhambra''  have  made  this  real  palace 
almost  as  superior  to  brick  and  mortar,  and  art,  as  were 
the  most  brilliant  creations  of  Aladdin's  lamp.  1  will 
endeavor  to  deal  gently  with  it,  and  not  reduce  it  to  a 
mere  thing  of  feet  and  inches.  It  shall  still  remain,  half- 
defined,  dim  and  shadowy,  mere  cloud-land,  the  home  of 
the  beautiful  princesses,  in  short,  the  Alhambra.  Yet 
you  must  indulge  me  in  a  little  detail  of  some  of  its 
externals,  for  it  has  an  actual  local  habitation  as  well 
as  a  name. 


LETTER   FROM    GRANADA.  417 

This  ancient  palace  o(  the  Moorish  kings  crowns  one 
of  that  series  of  hills  which  rise  back  of  the  city  and 
about  four  hundred  feet  above  it.  The  hill  is  about  half 
a  mile  in  length  from  the  extremes,  and  about  eight 
hundred  feet  in  width  at  the  widest  point — is  inclosed 
by  a  wall  an  average  of  thirty  feet  in  height,  and  eight 
feet  in  thickness,  having  fourteen  towers  of  different  size 
and  elevation.  The  approach  to  the  Alhambra  grounds 
through  its  thickly-planted  grove  outside  the  walls,  is  as 
charming  as  fountains,  and  rivulets,  and  broad,  tasteful 
avenues  lined  with  forest  trees,  which,  "high  overarched," 
embower  them  in  constant  shade,  can  make  it.  Three  or 
four  of  these  avenues  lead  to  different  entrances  into  the 
Alhambra  grounds.  Entered  within  the  grounds,  the 
palace  of  Charles  V.  first  meets  your  view.  It  is  an 
immense  edifice,  but  was  never  completed  beyond  the 
erection  of  the  walls.  These  bear  numerous  marble  and 
bronze  devices,  emblazoning  the  deeds  of  its  royal  master, 
themselves  a  perpetual  monument  of  that  wisdom  or  that 
folly,  as  we  please  to  view  it,  which  abandoned  a  throne 
for  a  cloister.  His  son  and  successor  was  too  busy  in 
burning  his  heretical  subjects  to  complete  what  his  father 
began. 

Near  the  palace  is  the  church,  also  erected  by  Charles. 
The  grounds  within  the  walls  have,  for  the  most  part, 
nothing  attractive.  With  the  exception  of  one  or  two 
small  gardens,  they  are  without  shrubbery  or  walks, 
having,  like  the  Alhambra  itself,  until  v^ery  recently  been 
left  to  run  to  waste.  There  is  a  promise  that  they  shall 
be  redeemed  from  this  shameful  neglect,  but  I  apprehend 
it  will  be  made  to  the  ear  and  broken  to  the  hope.  The 
palace,  which  has  for  centuries  been  suffered  to  go  into 
dilapidation,  is  undergoing  repairs.     Spain  has  fairly  been 


41.S  ADDKKSSKS    AND    M  ISCKI.I.ANIKS. 

shamed  into  a  preservation  of  this  Ijeautiful  reHc  of  the 
Moorish  past. 

Passing  around  the  overshadowing  pile  erected  b}-  the 
emperor,  we  enter  the  Aihambra,  being  first  introduced 
into  "the  entrance  to  the  Court  of  Lions."  This  lintrada 
is  a  large,  square,  open  court,  with  [iorticos,  supported 
by  plain  marble  pillars  on  either  side,  ha\'ing  an  artificial 
lake  in  the  center,  surrounded  by  shrubbery.  On  the 
north  side  we  enter  "  the  Hall  of  the  Ambassadors." 
This,  externally,  appears  as  a  tower  rising  above  the 
walls.  On  the  easterly  side  of  the  "■  Entrada  "  we  enter 
the  "  Court  of  Lions."  This  is  another  open  court,  with 
collonades  upheld  by  one  hundred  and  twenty-four  marble 
pillars,  having  in  the  center  a  large  Moorish  fountain, 
sustained  by  twelve  lions  of  stone.  This  is  the  center  of 
attraction.  Nothing  can  be  more  fairy-like  and  graceful. 
Here  is  commanded  the  most  complete  view  of  the 
beautiful  art  of  the  palace.  On  the  one  side  is  the  hall 
of  the  Abencerrages,  the  place  of  the  massacre  of  certain 
illustrious  leaders  of  that  line.  On  the  other  the  Hall  of 
the  Two  Sisters ;  while  opposite  the  entrance  is  "  the 
Court  of  Justice."  All  these  apartments  are  finished  in 
the  highest  style  of  Moorish  art.  Nothing  can  be  more 
beautiful  than  the  stalactite  ceiling,  the  arabesque,  and 
richly-colored  walls.  Arches  and  alcoves  of  most  elaborate 
finish,  and  of  most  scientific  precision,  everywhere  meet 
your  view.  Much  of  the  rich  coloring  given  them  six 
centuries  ago  remains.  This  is  especially  true  of  the 
honey-comb  and  stalactite  ceilings.  These  were  the 
more  public  apartments. 

In  the  interior  are  the  mosque,  the  bed-chambers,  the 
luxurious  baths,  and  the  abodes  of  those  pleasure-loving 
kings.  The  balconies  command  the  view  of  their  gardens 
within  the  Aihambra  walls,  and  of  all  the  magnificence  of 


LETTER  FROM  GRANADA.  419 

nature  of  which  she  has  been  so  prodigal  at  Granada. 
One  of  those  balconies  }'ou  are  told  by  the  i^^uide,  was 
the  favorite  resort  of  Washington  Irving,  and  he  would 
make  you  believe  that  in  that  very  spot  he  wrote  the 
tale  of  "  The  Three  I^eautiful  Princesses."  Certainly 
there  he  might  find  inspiration,  if  anywhere.  I  had  a 
contraband  view  (for  nothing  but  a  silver  key,  with  a 
golden  lining,  will  afford  this  forbidden-hour  view)  of  the 
"  Court  of  Lions  "  by  moonlight.  The  moon  was  at  her 
full,  and  bathed  the  Alhambra  in  her  flood  of  silver-light. 
The  stillness  of  the  hour,  the  wilderness  of  marble 
columns  duplicated  in  their  shadows,  stray  lines  of  light 
stealing  into  the  ever  open  windows  of  the  surrounding 
halls,  imparting  an  indistinct  but  softened  and  delicate 
view  of  their  strange  beauty,  and  the  genius  of  the  place 
whose  magic  you  both  feel  and  confess,  all  conspired  to 
invest  this  scene  with  an  interest  which  belongs  only  to 
the  hour  and  the  Alhambra.  So,  when  you  visit  Granada, 
you  will  take  your  curious  and  critic  view  of  this  palace 
by  day,  but  remember,  that  to  enjoy  it  "  aright,"  you 
must  see  it  as  you  would  Melrose, 

" by  pale  moonlight." 

From  the  balconies  and  windows  on  the  northerly  side 
of  the  palace,  you  see  the  Generalife,  a  summer  retreat 
of  the  Moorish  kings.  It  has  a  still  higher  elevation, 
being  about  six  hundred  to  eight  hundred  feet  above  the 
city.  A  ravine  intervenes  between  it  and  the  Alhambra. 
It  is  the  very  embodiment  of  luxury.  Its  elevation 
commands  a  view  of  all  that  is  picturesque  in  and  about 
Granada — the  Vega,  the  snow-crowned  Sierra  Nevada,  the 
river  Xenil,  the  palace  walls  and  towers.  Its  approach 
is  through  an  avenue  of  stately  evergreens,  which  conduct 
you  to  the  first  garden,  which  is  surrounded  by  artificial 


420  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

trenches  of  water,  and  scattered  amon*^  its  slirubber)'  are 
more  than  half  a  liunch-etl  jets,  which  in  the  summer  arc 
constantly  phiying. 

The  porticos  and  dwelh'ng  on  the  same  plane  with  this 
garden,  are  finished  in  the  same  general  style,  though 
less  elaborate,  as  the  Alhambra.  From  this  garden  )'ou 
ascend  by  stairway  about  twenty  feet  to  another  similar 
one,  and  from  this,  by  still  another  stairway  overarched 
with  evergreens,  its  balustrades  being  stone  conductors 
of  ever-flowing  water,  you  land  at  the  tower,  witli  its 
balconies  and  shades  and  seats  of  repose. 

This  constant  and  unlimited  supply  of  water  to  both 
the  Generalife  and  the  Alhambra  is  from  the  river  Darro, 
and  is  conducted  by  an  aqueduct  channeled  into  the  side 
of  the  mountain,  which  rises  still  back  of  the  Generalife. 

A  piece  of  Vandalism  was  perpetrated  by  Charles  V. 
in  the  erection  of  his  palace.  He  tore  down  the  winter 
palace  of  the  Moorish  kings,  and  built  his  own  upon  the 
site.  Perhaps  he  repented  of  this  in  his  convent  leisure. 
But  this  letter  is  already  too  long.  It  must  find  its 
apology  in  the  interesting  associations  at  which  it  has 
only  glanced. 

A  visit  to  Granada  will  satisfy  the  most  skeptical  mind, 
that  the  Moors  had  a  high  civilization  for  their  age,  a 
great  love  of  the  beautiful,  and  were  accomplished  in 
some  of  the  more  graceful  arts,  and  that  had  the}'  not 
been  crushed  out  by  the  ruthless  policy  of  Ferdinand, 
but  been  annexed  to,  and  commingled  with,  his  own 
people,  they  had  formed  the  basis  of  a  noble  race. 


LETTER   FROM    GIBRALTAR   AND   CADIZ.  42 1 


Number    VII. 

Cadiz,  March  11,  iS-jg. 

The  British  Lion,  when  it  took  Gibraltar  to  itself  and 
threw  Tarifa  to  Spain,  admirably  imitated  that  royal 
beast  of  ^^sop,  who  made  a  like  division  of  spoils  among 
the  contestant  beasts,  taking  the  chief  share  to  himself. 
Standing  as  it  does  at  the  straits,  and  commanding  their 
entrance,  it  is  an  important  adjunct  to  the  power  of 
England.  It  is  doubtful  whether  she  would  long  retain 
her  India  possessions  if  she  had  not  the  control  of  this 
gateway  to  the  East.  Long  may  she  hold  it  against  all 
her  foes,  and  long  may  she  continue  to  govern  an  empire 
whose  masses  have  no  capacity  for  self-government,  and 
who  have  no  government  by  their  chiefs  fit  to  be  called 
legitimate  authority.  Probably  the  greatest  piece  of  fili- 
bustering perpetrated  in  the  modern  ages,  was  England's 
conquest  of  the  Indies,  and  although  Clive  and  Hastings 
left  bloody  records  behind  them,  and  although  the  con- 
queror has  fallen  far  short  of  her  high  duty  to  India,  it 
cannot  be  questioned  that  the  world  is  the  better  and  the 
happier  for  that  forcible  possession  by  the  descendants  of 
the  great  Norman  filibuster  who  laid  in  race  the  founda- 
tions of  the  best  civilization  the  world  ever  knew.  This 
general  proposition,  I  maintain,  is  "  firm  as  the  Rock  of 
Gibraltar,"  and  this  brings  me  to  show  how  well  fortified 
it  is,  for  many  a  man  has  rounded  his  rhetoric  with  this 
flourish,  without  the  slightest  idea  of  the  strength  he 
claimed  for  his  position. 

Imagine,  then,  a  rock  about  three  miles  in  length  and  a 
mile  in  width  at  the  widest  point,  and  seventeen  hundred 
feet  in  height  at  its  highest  elevation,  towering  up  between 


422  ADDRESSES    AND    MISCEIJ.ANIES. 

the  Spanish  aiul  African  coasts,  apparently  for  no  other 
purpose  than  to  give  to  some  power  the  control  of  this 
passage  which  gives  the  West  communication  with  the 
East.  Then  imagine  it  almost  precipitous  on  the  side 
toward  the  Mediterranean,  towering,  at  the  lowest  point, 
at  least  a  thousand  feet  above  the  sea,  against  which  the 
combined  navies  of  the  world  would  be  as  impotent  as 
are  the  waves  which  break  at  its  base.  Then  picture  to 
yourself  the  side  which  forms  the  harbor — this  being  a 
little  lake  which  makes  around  the  western  side  of  the 
rock,  interposing  between  it  and  the  Spanish  coast — from 
a  point  fifty  feet  above  the  water's  edge,  fortified  by  all 
the  defenses  which  masonry  and  engineering  can  devise, 
and  these  fortifications  mounted  by  guns  at  least  every 
ten  yards,  and  repeated  batteries  along  the  side  of  the 
rock  for  at  least  half  its  height ;  then  superadd  to  these, 
immense  galleries  excavated  for  more  than  a  mile  into 
the  rock  itself,  through  which  an  army  of  mounted  cavalry 
can  ride,  out  of  which  open  frequent  port-holes,  at  each  of 
which  is  mounted  a  twenty-four  pounder,  these  galleries 
leading  to  immense  magazines  (the  latter  not  exhibited 
to  the  public) ;  then  fancy  a  force  of  nearly  four  thousand 
troops  for  general  defense,  having  in  charge  these  eight 
hundred  mounted  guns,  and  the  garrison  provisioned  for 
a  four  or  five  years'  siege,  and  you  will  have  some  idea  of 
the  strength  of  this  fortification,  and  conclude  with  me 
that,  upon  no  principle  yet  known  to  the  world  in  the 
science  of  gunnery,  can  Gibraltar  ever  be  taken  by  force. 
As  the  terms  of  peace,  Great  Britain  may  be  compelled 
by  some  treaty  to  yield  it  to  Spain  at  the  dictation  of 
France,  but  by  mere  attack  or  siege,  never.  In  one  other 
way  it  may  be  lost  to  England.  Connected  by  an  isthmus 
of  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  width  with  the  Spanish 
mainland,  it  could  be  gained  to  Spain  by  treachery.     The 


T.ETTI^R    FROM    GIBRALTAR   AND   CADIZ.  423 

seduction  from  their  fidelity  of  a  (ew  sentinels  mi<^ht 
possibly  give  an  invading  army  possession  of  Gibraltar. 

The  scenery  about  the  rock  is  picturesque  in  the  ex- 
treme. The  town  itself  is  a  huddle  of  brown  houses  at 
the  foot  of  the  rock,  and  on  its  westerly  side  the  homes 
of  about  twenty  thousand  people,  representatives  of,  you 
would  suppose,  all  the  nations  of  the  earth.  The  tur- 
baned  Moor  is  the  most  noticeable,  whom,  in  the  full 
costume  of  his  nation,  you  meet  everywhere.  The  Moor 
of  the  better  class  is  observable  for  his  handsome  and 
manly  features,  his  lofty  bearing  and  stately  carriage. 
There  is  majesty  in  all  his  movements.  Ah,  if  he  were 
still  in  Granada ! 

Gibraltar  is  strictl}'  a  garrison  town  and  everything  is 
under  military  rule.  Those  "  martial  airs,"  with  which 
England  "  circles  the  earth  daily,"  will  greet  you  at  morn, 
at  noon  and  "  dewy  eve."  Alternating  with  "  God  save 
the  King"  and  "Rule  Britannia,"  by  a  full  brass  band, 
you  will  hear  the  national  airs  of  Scotland  groaned  out 
b}'  her  pipes,  the  favorite  music  of  the  hills  and  valleys 
of  Scotia.  Never  fancy  you  have  heard  the  "  Scotch  bag- 
pipes," because  you  have  listened  to  the  blind  piper  at 
the  street  corner,  whom  you  forgot  to  give  a  sixpence. 
(May  you  both  be  forgiven.) 

A  week's  detention  here  by  a  prevailing  "  Levanter," 
when  on  my  way  to  Malaga,  makes  my  present  tarry  of 
twenty-four  hours  quite  long  enough,  and  I  am  happy 
to  proceed  on  to  Cadiz  where  I  wait  until  the  twelfth  of 
March,  when  I  take  one  of  the  monthly  Spanish  steamers 
for  Havana.     Homeward  bound  !     "  There's  magic  in  it." 

CADIZ. 
I  am  more   impressed   than   on  my  first  visit  with  the 
outward    beauty  of  this    city.     It    is    called    the  "  Silver 


424  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

Saucer"  of  Spain,  aiul  is  rcL;ardcd  b)'  some  the  most 
beautiful  of  the  smaller  cities  of  luirope.  Certainl}'  it  is 
by  far  the  most  pleasing  in  its  general  appearance  of  any 
I  have  visited.  It  has  no  commercial  activity,  nothing 
intense  in  any  of  its  aspects,  neither  is  it  magnificent,  but 
is  simph'  a  thing  of  beauty,  and  the  eye  never  wearies  ot 
its  tasteful  avenues  and  plazas,  and  that  Alameda,  inter- 
spersed with  gardens  and  groves,  which  are  now  in  bloom 
and  verdure,  extends  a  full  mile  along  the  sea-wall. 

You  ask  what  it  is  that  makes  Cadiz  so  beautiful.  I  do 
not  know  that  I  can  tell  you  more  minutely  than  I  could 
why  a  fine  sunset  is  so ;  it  is  the  combined  effect.  I  will 
try  and  give  you  a  faint  idea  of  a  single  street,  and  this 
describes  them  all.  It  is  from  twelve  to  fifteen  feet  in 
width,  its  center  paved  with  square  blocks,  like  the  "  Russ 
pavement  ;"  about  three  feet  on  either  side  is  flagged  for 
a  foot-walk.  The  buildings  are  generally  of  four  stories, 
affording  almost  perpetual  shade  in  the  street,  and  are  all 
of  pure  white.  They  have  abundant  and  large  windows, 
and  over  each  window,  to  the  fourth  story,  is  a  handsome 
and  lightly-made  iron  balcony,  above  which  is  a  project- 
ing window  ;  the  balcony  and  the  window-frame  is  painted 
a  light  green,  rich  hangings  ornamenting  the  interior  of 
these  projections.  While  all  the  architecture  is  substan- 
tial, it  is  graceful.  The  entrance  is  always  through  a 
handsome  court-yard  where,  in  the  best  houses,  are  foun- 
tains and  statuary.  The  business  of  the  occupant  is 
carried  on  in  the  lower  story — his  residence  is  in  the 
upper.  This  will  hold  good  of  all  classes,  except  of  the 
very  heaviest  commercial  character.  You  stand  at  one 
end  of  a  street  a  half  mile  in  length,  so  constructed,  and 
experience  the  effect  of  that  blending  of  the  green  and 
white  colors,  which  is  always  agreeable  to  the  eye,  and  all 
the  architecture  graceful  and  cheerful,  and  then  pass  on 


LETTER   FROM    GIBRALTAR   AND   CADIZ.  425 

to  the  street  that  runs  at  rij^ht  angles  and  see  the  same 
blending"  and  same  effect,  and  so  on,  wherever  you  go, 
and  in  the  better  parts  of  the  city  no  nuisances,  nothing 
offensive,  with  groups  of  merry  faces  in  the  balconies, 
and,  if  it  be  a  holiday,  pass  on  to  the  public  square,  and 
from  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  to  ten  at  night  see  from 
one  hundred  to  a  thousand  ladies  and  gentlemen,  all  in 
"full  dress,"  promenade,  every  face,  whatever  bitterness 
the  heart  may  know,  seeming  happy,  all  appearing  as  if 
they  lived  in  an  age  where  protests  were  unknown,  and 
the  bankrupt's  gazette  unheard  of;  and  then  leave  not 
out  of  the  account — but  this  is  Nature's — its  magnificent 
sea  view,  its  soft  climate,  and  its  glorious  sunsets,  and 
you  have  the  basis  of  the  beauty  of  Cadiz, 

I  happen  here  just  in  carnival  time;  of  course  all  is 
gayety,  for  it  is  the  Saturnalia  of  Catholic  Europe.  The 
whole  city  prepares  for  it  as  we  do  for  our  single  national 
holiday.  The  shops  are  full  of  masqueraders,  and  brill- 
iantly illuminated.  The  municipal  head  of  the  city  has 
his  address  to  the  people  placarded  about  the  town,  in 
which  he  bids  them  enter  with  all  possible  delight  into 
their  pleasures,  masquerades,  etc.,  but  enjoins  them  "  to 
do  nothing  not  worthy  their  dignity  and  their  liberty, 
and,  above  all,  in  their  burlesques,  to  do  nothing  which 
shall  offend  the  feelings  of  the  clergy,  who  are  entitled 
to  reverence,  and  nothing  which  shall  dishonor  their 
religion  ;  that  any  violator  of  this  injunction  will  be  pun- 
ished to  the  extent  of  the  law."  Certainly  very  sensible, 
and,  so  far  as  I  could  see,  universally  obeyed. 

The  carnival  opened  on  Sunday,  the  holiday  of  Catholic 
countries.  Mass  over,  the  last  Latin  prayer  chanted, 
which  the  priest  understands,  the  last  Ave  Maria  uttered, 
and  all  Cadiz  plunges  into  the  festivities  of  the  season. 
Troops  of  masqueraders,  bands  of  Calliothumpian  musi- 
28 


426  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

cians  tlirou^h  the  day  for  the  amusement  of  tlie  crowd, 
aiul,  as  the  play-bills  announce,  brilliant  pageants  and 
masquerade  balls  at  the  theatres  in  the  evening.  For 
three  days  everything  is  in  holiday  apparel,  and  the 
public  grounds  are  thronged  with  men,  women  and 
children. 

This  is  a  time  of  special  license  wath  the  fair.  The 
balconies  are  crowded  with  misses,  just  verging  into 
womanhood,  armed  with  a  richly-ornamented  paper  bas- 
ket which,  with  cord  attached,  they  throw  at  the  gentle- 
men passers  in  the  street.  It  is  about  as  much  as  a  man's 
hat  is  worth  to  pass  one  of  these  feminine  Sebastopols. 
But  I  confess  it  is  not  without  its  compensations,  for  they 
are  launched  by  maidens  who  do  not  evade  your  scrutiny, 
and  you  would  often  feel  inclined  to  say  to  the  assailant, 
"  take  all  my  hat."  If  you  happen  to  be  hit  by  one  of 
these  mortal  engines,  you  will  not  resolve  yourself  into 
an  indignation  meeting,  even  if  the  blow  be  less  gentle 
than  you  would  have  it,  for  surely, 

"  He  whom  fair  maiden  doth  most  fairly  hit, 
Doth  very  foolishly,  although  he  smart, 
Not  to  seem  senseless  of  the  bob." 

For  three  days  and  nights  were  poured  out  into  the 
plazas  all  that  is  ugly,  all  that  is  fair,  in  Cadiz,  and  brought 
out  to  the  sun  and  popular  gaze  not  a  few  whom  sober 
prose  may  call  beautiful.  The  Spanish  ladies  generally 
have  infinite  grace  of  manner,  and  some  elements  of 
physical  beauty  they  frequently  possess,  but  their  beauty 
lives  fast  and  fades  early. 

That  peerless  of  autocrats,  "  The  Autocrat  of  the 
Breakfast-table,"  would  find  his  franchise  undisputed  in 
Spain.  I  remember  he  says,  and  enforces  it  as  a  right 
which,  like  that  of  "  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  hap- 


LETTER    FROM    CIHRALTAR   AND    CADIZ.  427 

piness,"  ought  to  be  undisputed,  that  whoever  meets  in 
the  streets  with  a  feminine  face  that  pleases,  should  be 
indulged,  not  only  the  first  accidental  glance,  but  a 
second,  fair,  appreciative  and  satisfactory  view.  Surely 
it  should  never  have  been  necessary  for  this  social  law- 
giver to  propound  this  new  canon,  but  now  that  it  is 
propounded,  I  suppose  the  right  will  take  its  place  with 
the  other  "self-evident"  truths  of  the  declaration.  May 
it  never  dwindle  down  to  a  mere  "  glittering  generality." 
In  Spain  it  is  a  conceded  franchise,  and  reciprocity  is  the 
law. 

The  sobriety  of  the  public  festive  life  of  the  country 
was  exemplified  during  those  three  days  of  carnival  when 
the  public  grounds  were  thronged. 

It  was  a  gleeful  promenade.  Everybody  was  merry, 
but  without  rudeness.  All  was  toned  down  to  propriety 
and  courtesy.  This  is  fairly  to  be  credited  to  the  national 
manners.  And  here  let  me  do  Spain  the  justice  to  say, 
that  it  is  a  nation  of  high  courtesy  and  civility ;  and,  if 
it  be  true  that  "  vice  itself  loses  half  its  evil  by  losing  all 
its  grossness,"  then  she  is  entitled  to  a  large  credit  in  the 
social  account.  With  gentle  and  simple,  all  classes  and 
conditions,  civility  is  the  rule. 

All  greet  you  with  a  polite  dios  (God  be  with  you),  or 
some  other  pass-word  of  courtesy.  If  the  Spaniard  be 
taking  his  lunch  by  the  road-side,  he  will  be  very  likely 
to  invite  you  to  share  his  pan  y  vino  (bread  and  wine). 
A  characteristic  incident  occurred  on  my  overtaking,  in 
the  course  of  a  long  ride,  a  Spanish  gentleman  and  his 
daughter,  a  Miss  of  about  eight  years,  who  had  left  their 
carriage  with  a  servant  by  the  road-side,  and  were  enjoying 
their  noon  repast  on  a  bank  which  overlooks  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  valleys  in  Granada. 


428  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

He  saluted  nic  as  I  approached,  and  sent  his  chiughter 
with  the  vi)w  as  a  pledge  of  way-side  <^fOod  fellowship. 
Of  course  I  dismounted  my  horse,  and  whether  that  cup- 
bearer, fairer  than  Ganymede,  thrice  presented  me  the 
basso  dc  vino  which  I  did  thrice  refuse,  and  whether,  in 
a  language  of  nature  as  expressive  as  any  speech,  we 
all  reciprocated  our  sentiments  and  compliments,  and 
whether,  after  the  manner  of  the  cavaliers  of  the  olden 
time,  I  at  length  took  my  adios  of  the  fair  Senorita,  are 
high  matters  concerning  which  you  have  no  right  to 
know,  and  I  am  not  disposed  to  communicate.  If  you 
visit  the  Spaniard  at  his  home,  and  he  likes  you,  he  says, 
as  you  take  your  leave,  "  this  house  is  yours."  His  polite- 
ness always  couches  itself  in  extravagant  phrase ;  but 
when  he  offers  you  his  house,  or  his  horses,  or  his  hounds, 
which  you  admire,  be  very  careful  not  to  ask  him  when 
you  shall  call  for  the  title  deeds. 

But  of  Cadiz  and  Spain,  I  must  take  my  final  leave, 
for  "  are  we  not  here  to-day  and  gone  to-morrow  ?  " 


APPENDIX.  429 


APPENDIX    "A." 


The  history  of  the  Church  property  question  and  of  the  poHcy  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  authorities  in  that  connection,  in  the  State  of  New  York, 
since  the  passage  of  the  Church  Property  Bill,  is  as  follows : 

As  is  set  forth  in  the  speech,  the  Roman  Cath'olic  Church  of  St.  Louis  of 
Buffalo,  for  its  refusal  to  comply  with  the  ordinance  of  the  Baltimore  council 
by  surrendering  its  corporate  franchises  and  transferring  its  property  to  the 
bishop  of  the  diocese,  was  placed  under  interdict,  its  trustees  excommuni- 
cated, and  all  holy  ordinances  withdrawn  from  it.  This  was  its  condition  for 
about  four  years.  A  very  short  time  after  the  passage  of  the  bill  the  inter- 
dict and  excommunication  were  withdrawn,  a  priest  was  appointed  to  per- 
form the  ordinary  offices  and  services,  and  from  that  time  to  the  present  the 
Church  of  St.  Louis  has  had  no  controversy  with  the  bishop,  and  still  retains 
its  corporate  existence,  with  seven  trustees  elected  according  to  the  law  of 
1813  relating  to  religious  corporations.  So  far  as  I  can  learn  there  has  been 
the  same  acquiescence  on  the  part  of  the  bishops  in  the  State  policy  wherever 
the  same  controversy  existed. 

The  legislative  history  of  the  State  of  New  York  since  1855  on  the  sub- 
ject, is  as  follows : 

In  1862  the  Church  Property  Bill  was  repealed,  but  not  until  the  Catholic 
bishops  had  surrendered  their  claims  on  the  churches  that  persisted  in 
maintaining  their  corporate  franchises.  In  1863  a  special  amendment  of 
the  act  of  18 13  was  passed  for  the  incorporation  of  Roman  Catholic  churches, 
as  had  been  before  done  for  the  Protestant  Episcopal  and  the  Dutch  Re- 
formed churches,  and  as  the  legislature  of  1855  was  prepared  to  do,  but 
which  the  Church  authorities  then  declined  to  accept. 

That  amendment  gives  to  the  bishop,  archbishop  and  vicar-general  of  any 
given  diocese,  together  with  the  priest  of  any  congregation  in  the  diocese,  the 
power  to  appoint  two  laymen  of  the  congregation  to  be,  with  the  bishop  and 
priest,  trustees  of  the  society,  and  on  filing  the  usual  statute  certificate  in  the 
office  of  the  secretary  of  State  and  the  county  clerk  of  the  county  where  the 
church  is  located,  the  society  is  declared  incorporated  and  possessed  of  all 
the  rights,  powers  and  obligations  granted  and  imposed  by  the  act  of  1813. 
Such  lay  trustees  to  be  appointed  annually. 

The  trustees  fix  the  salary  of  the  priest,  the  only  change  as  to  the  power 
of  the  trustees  from  that  given  to  the  trustees  of  any  Protestant  church. 

*  See  page  44. 


430  ADDRESSES   AND    MISCELLANIES. 

Making  the  priest  a  trustee  is  not  a  new  feature.  It  exists  in  the  Episcopal 
and  Dutch  Reformed  churches.  The  appointment  of  the  lay  trustees  by  the 
bishop  and  priest  is  an  exception  to  the  popular  rule  in  other  churches. 
But,  practically,  inasmuch  as  the  trustees  have  no  powers  except  those  given 
by  statute,  a  Church  corporation,  like  every  other  corporation  created  under 
our  statutes,  being  civil  corporations  governed  by  the  ordinary  rules  of  the 
common  law,  there  is  no  possibility  of  the  abuses  that  might  arise  where  the 
absolute  title  to  the  Church  property  is  in  the  bishop,  without  any  incorpora- 
tion of  the  society. 

In  the  one  instance  the  Church  property  belongs  to  the  congregation,  and 
the  trustees  are  under  the  control  of  the  legislature  and  of  the  equity  side 
of  the  courts,  to  whose  jurisdiction  the  act  of  1S13,  of  which  the  act  of  1863 
is  a  part,  expressly  declares  all  the  societies  incorporated  under  it  to  be 
subject.  In  the  other,  the  property  is  the  absolute  estate  of  the  bishop, 
and  subject  to  his  control  as  any  other  private  property.  This  was  the 
very  point  made  by  the  Baltimore  council  in  article  four,  of  whose  ordinance 
(see  page  fourteen  of  speech)  declared,  "  that  all  churches  and  all  other 
ecclesiastical  property  which  have  been  acquired  by  donations  or  the  offer- 
ings of  the  faithful  for  religious  or  charitable  use,  belong  to  the  bishop  of 
the  diocese,"  unless  granted  to  some  religious  order  of  monks  or  priests. 

It  was  this  article  which  initiated  the  policy  throughout  the  country,  of 
compelling  all  incorporated  Roman  Catholic  churches  to  surrender  their 
franchises  and  vest  their  property  titles  in  the  bishop  of  their  diocese. 

It  was  during  the  resistance  by  the  Church  of  St.  Louis  of  Buffalo  to  that 
policy,  that  it  appealed  to  the  legislature  for  protection,  which  appeal  was 
answered  by  the  passage  of  the  Church  Property  Bill.  The  issue  was  a 
simple  one.  Should  the  millions  of  Roman  Catholic  Church  property  be 
the  absolute  estate  of  the  bishops,  or  should  it  be  the  property  of  the  con- 
gregations, incorporated  under  the  State  law  and  managed  by  a  board  of 
trustees  with  strictly  defined  duties  and  powers,  every  act  of  abuse  of  trust 
being  subject  to  correction  and  punishment  both  by  the  legislature  and  the 
courts  ? 

It  is  probable  that  some  churches  which,  previous  to  1855,  had  made  over 
their  title  to  the  bishop,  may  not  have  regained  them.  But  many  of  the 
churches  founded  since  1863  are  incorporated,  and  the  controversy  with 
those  who  declined  to  surrender  their  titles  ended  when  the  Church  Property 
Bill  became  a  law.  The  triumph  of  the  Roman  Catholic  churches  in  the 
State  of  New  York,  which  resisted  the  Baltimore  ordinance,  has  been  com- 
plete so  far  as  their  own  organizations  are  concerned,  and  few  churches,  in 
their  efforts  to  conform  their  polity  to  the  spirit  of  our  institutions,  have 
made  so  honorable  and  heroic  a  record  as  the  St.  Louis  Church  of  Buffalo. 


